Suna's Kekkei Genkai
by ShullieQ
Summary: Kankurou, Temari and Gaara find out that they inherrited a kekkei genkai, but they are having trouble controlling it. Fearing them, Sunaga ninja's dumb them on the Konoha ninjas. GaaNeji. yep. I suck at summaries. just R&R. rated for peoples bad mouths
1. Kiokubun'ya

**Suna Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 1: Kiokubun'ya

Hey this is my new fic! The idea came to me in school the other day and I've been writing like crazy. For those of you who read my other fics Past meets future has one more chapter to go and it's ready to post. I'm just waiting for some more reviews on chapter nine ok

* * *

Tsunade glared at the group of Suna jonins standing in her office. Here she had been having a nice conversation with Hyuuga Hiashi, when suddenly they all just burst into the room with no announcements or invitation. They were standing in a circle around the two older sand sibling. Tsunade noticed that Kankurou had magic sealing wards over his eyes and on the ropes that bound his hands. Temari stood next to him looking scarred and nervous. She kept looking back at the sack one jonin was holding in the back where Tsunade strongly suspected that the youngest of the sand siblings was. 

"You understand, Hokage-sama? Kazekage-sama does not want to deal with our past kage's....mistake," the jonin glaced back at the sack. Tsunade openly glared at him and Kankurou frowned from behind the wards.

"Why did you bring them here?" Hiashi demanded.

"You can repay us for aiding you last year (the while Sasuke thing)," the jonin replied, answering the question, but saying it to Tsunade.

Hiashi's would be outburst was silenced by Tsunade. She turned to the sand-nins and glared at them so evily that they took a step back. "I was allowing you redemtion from your betrayal during the Chunin Exam," she said in a low voice rising from her chair. "The three of them may stay here in Konoha, but no other Sand nin may enter MY village without my permission."

"Hokage-sama, these three--"

"LEAVE! NOW!!" she roared. The jonin with the sack dropped it uncerimoniously on the ground and followed the other jonins out of the building and out of the village. Tsunade sat back and sighed, masaging her temples. God she hated being Hokage. Temari knelt down and untied the sack and eased Gaara out. "Oh, my god.." Tsunade hurried over to him. The redhead also had seals on him like Kankurou, but some were also burned with blood onto his skin. "Why did they do this?" she demanded from Temari.

"We g-got stronger..." Temari stammered quietly.

"Suna's blood limit emerged in the three of us." Kankurou said out right.

"The Sand village also has blood limits?" Tsunade asked, looking up at him.

"A rare one," Kankurou said. "It only appears in sand nins who have green eyes. Our family."

"I see." Tsunade used her justu and unsealed the wards on his eyes and hands.

"They don't think you can controll it.. " She finished unsealing the seals on his eyes. "Focus your chakra away from your eyes and relax." Kankurou did so and opened his eyes, He smiled at Temari for his achievement. "You all have it?"

"Mine's really weak," Temari murmured. "Kankurou's the oldest therefore the strongest."

"That doesn't make sense then," Tsunade said. "You should be the second strongest, then." Temari shrugged and Tsunade sighed. "Hiashi, help me get these wards off Gaara." The two sand-nins stood aside as the leaf-nins stood over their younger brother and carefully removed the seals. Gaara watched them with nervous and untrusting eyes. Tsunade smiled at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He jerked away from her touch. She felt chakra swirling from behind his eyes. "Relax," she told him. "You wont be able to stop it if you don't."

He looked at her right in the eyes. She felt something run through her, like he was looking through her mind. 'Relax,' she told him with her mind. 'I won't hurt you, I promise.' Suddenly whatever went through her was pulled back and the chakra despirsed. "Good boy," she murmured in his ear. She took the last seal off. Gaara tried to stand, but because he'd used up all his mental and physical strength to pull the chakra back he fell back to the ground, unconcious. Tsunade caught him and picked him up like he weighted less then a baby's doll.

Tsunade led the others in the room to follow her. She led them through the village to where there were few houses and lots of green. "You can stay at this house," she said, pointing at one near a wood filled hill and lake (it's Tenchi's house, people. Tenchi has the coolest house in the world. In fact, I've drawn out plans to build it for my own house. SNG: you're babbling again. H-R: sorry).

"The Hyuuga clan lives nearby," Tsunade said. "The Hyuuga's also have their own Kekkei Genkai, perhaps they could help you control it."

Hiashi nodded. "I would be glad to help. Please feel free to come to us for help if it's needed." He took Gaara (who was sound asleep, but no one noticed thats why no one's freaking out) from Tsunade, who promised to come back to check on them later. As she left Hiashi led them into their new house.

* * *

Gaara opened his eyes and saw a white wall. The first thing he thought was: where am I? the second was: why am I lying down? The third was: HOLY SHIT I FELL ASLEEP!! He tried to sit up but the sudden movement made him dizzy and he had to lay back down. Glancing around the room, he found it intact and completely in order. Except it looked like Kankurou's room ten minutes after Temari cleaned it (not quite chaotic, but close to it). In fact he noticed two familiar puppets in the corner and decided that the room looked like Kankurou's room because it was Kankurou's room. 'Why the hell am I in Kankurou's room?' 

**YOU WERE UNCONCIOUS.**

'You're awake?' Gaara stared at the ceiling, invisioning himself staring at Shukaku.

**YES.**

'Why didn't you...'

**SHUT UP!** Gaara clutched his head as Shukaku's anger added to the headache he already had. **I WAS _PERSUADED_ TO STAY QUIET.** The demon spirit said no more and Gaara knew better then to press.

The door opened and the Hokage stepped in.

"Oh, good, you're awake." she said, walking in with no hesitation. She sat on the chair next to the bed. "Your brother sure has made himself at home in the past two hours." she smiled to herself, as she looked around the room then turned to Gaara. "My name is Tsunade. I am Hodaime Hokage. And you are Gaara of the Desert, vessel of the demon Shukaku, yes?" Gaara's only responce was a glare. "Your brother and sister tell me you had very little control over your kekkei genkai when you were in Sunakakura. They also tell me you haven't trained or been taught ninjutsu since you were six."

"Who would train me?" Gaara asked bluntly. "I don't need to be trained anyway. The sand does everything I tell it to."

Tsunade gave him an 'oh really' look then punched at him. The sand automatically came up to protect him, but her fist cracked the sand then went through, shattering the protective shield. Gaara's eyes widened in shock then glanced with a slight fear at the fist that had landed on the pillow a few centimeters from his face. "I don't think the sand can do everything for you." she pondered outloud. "Are you well enough to stand?" Gaara glared at her again. He didn't like this woman. She was smug and a know-it-all and she went through his sand! and now she was asking him, Gaara of the desert, if he could stand. He flung the covers off of himself and stood defiantly, ignoring the dizziness and began to leave. Rather then stopping him Tsunade stood and followed him out. He exited the house and the Sand's new property and into Konoha's main streets. As he turned onto another street he looked back. She was walking about ten paces behind him. Ten minutes later he looked back, she was still there.

"Why are you following me?" he demanded.

"To make sure you're okay," Tsunade replied.

"I'm fine! Stop following me!" he flitted out of sight onto the roof tops. Tsunade smiled. 'Cat and mouse, how fun,' she thought following him.

* * *

Kankurou sat with Hyuuga Neji somewhere in the woods above the house. He was explaining the kekkei genkai to him so that Neji could help him control it. 

"It's sorta like what I thought the Byakugan would feel like," Kankurou explained. "Chakra rushes up into your eyes and you see things differently."

"How so?" Neji asked politely. Hey, he was getting paid for this he might as well get the job done right. Plus, he felt very proud of himself that he was the one Tsunade chose for the job. 'In your face, main family!' Inner-Neji cheered. (SNG GLOMPS WIDDLE INNER-NEJI!! Kawaii! Kyuubi: I told her not to...)

"You see where chakra is gathered and if someone is using their chakra. You can also make your own..." he paused looking for the right word, "..area...that you can control."

"Like your own demensional space?" Neji asked to make sure. (A/N: ok..I'll try to explain this. for those of you who watch Yu Yu Hakusho, it's kinda like the territory fields that Kido and them use. Also when Neji uses that 64-hakke thing he makes his own field.)

"Yeah. Depending on what your area of kekkei genkai is, you can control what anyone on your field, or 'territory' (I really couldn't think of anything else to call it. sorry YYH fans!) thinks."

"Interesting," Neji thought for a moment. "What did you mean by area of kekkei genkai?"

"I read about it in a scroll in Sunakakura. You can choose what territory you specialize in. Like Temari, she wants to specialize in undoing seals and wind-using techniques."

Neji nodded, that was reasonable for Temari to decide to use, since her main techniques were based on wind. "And you?"

"Materializing chakra, maybe," Kankurou replied. "Also, hand-to-hand combat since I really suck at that. I heard that Suna's taijutsu with the kekkei genkai is supposed to be similar to Hyuuga's."

"It's a gentle palm?"

"No, just using the similar form." (for those of you who don't do martial arts, that means moving similar, but inforcing it differenty)

"I see," Neji stood. "I was asked to help you control your kekkei genkai, but I might help you with the hand-to-hand combat as well." Kankurou stood also. "You know when you use your tree climbing skills you have to use as little or as much chakra as you need to stick?" Kankurou nodded. "Instead of sending the charka to your feet, send it to your eyes. Since we're not sure how strong the kekkei genkai is, only send the smallest amount you can."

Kankurou relaxed and made the chakra molding seal. He opened his eyes and felt a surge of chakra rushing behind his eyes, but he sent too mcuh and he began losing control of it. He heard Neji calmly telling him to cancel his charka flow. Kankurou did and blanked out.

When he woke up, Neji was sitting next to him waiting patiently. "How long was I out?"

"Only five minutes," Neji answered. "You lost control and opened up your territory completely. You need to be careful or anyone could see anything in your mind."

"What did you see?"

"Gaara," Neji answered. "When he first came to life with you." There was a pause as Kankurou thought back to that time. "That is the downside to your bloodline limit. They all have one. Let's practice until you can control your chakra flow."

* * *

Temari glanced around as she entered an old graveyard. Seeing no one and deciding that no one was watching, she set her overlylarge fan on the ground and knelt down next to it. She made several signs and molded her chakra. "**Kiokubun'ya**!" she opened the blodlimit and set up her territory around the perimiter of the graveyard. Afraid of Suna's officials and their seals that even Gaara's sand couldn't block. That had been the reason Kankurou's hands had been sealed. He couldn't stand watching the officials show the younger sand-nin no mercy as they burned the seals on him, and he had tried to stop them. Temari had hid the strength of her kekkei genkai from even her brothers. 

When she opened her eyes, the graveyard was no longer empty. Several figures began floating in her vision. She couldn't see them clearly, but she knew what they were. The spirits of the unresting dead smiled at her longingly, jealous of her life. They seemed to know that she could see them, yet unable to comunicate with them. She turned her attention to the sky and watched the wind. With her bloodline limit she could see the currents and patterns of wind. She metally called a thread of wind that would have been a pleasent breeze and wrapped it around her arm. Several others came and danced around her, brushing her face, arms and legs with a gentle touch. She ran her hands through one strand.

"Temari?"

She looked around quickly, but there was no one in sight. Frowning, she held the breeze strand and touhed another one. Naruto's voice came into her head: 'I want the pork ramen, obasan.' That time she had a slight, blurry vision of the blond nin at the Ramen Bar. She slipped her hand back into the first strand. She saw Gaara walking slowly down the path she had taken. He was calling her.

Standing up, she released the strands of wind and stopped the chakra flow to her eyes. Going back up the path, she met her younger brother.

"Gaara, you're awake!" she cried happily. "Are you sure you should be walking?" she added with concern.

Gaara looked slightly relieved to see her and sat down on the side of the path. Temari sat down next to him. He looked very small suddenly and very tired, so she put her arm around his shoulders and gently pulled him closer, unsure of his reaction. Surprisingly, he relaxed into her embrace and leaned his head on her shoulder.

"My eyes hurt," he mumbled rubbing his eyes.

"I'm sorry we couldn't stop them," she said. Tsunade stepped into the path, unnoticed by Gaara.

"Where's Kankurou? He wasn't home."

"Training with one of the Hyuugas," Temari replied. "We need to find someone to train you also."

Gaara scoffed. "Who would train me?" Temari sighed. He was right, no one would want to train him. No one in Konoha particularly liked any of the three sand nins because of the whole envading thing. Only the nine rookies and Hyuuga Neji's team liked them, because they saved them from the Sound's Four. (SNG: KANKUROU SAVED KIBA! BOO-YAH!)

Tsunade sighed also, allowing her presense to be known. Gaara quickly sat up and inched away from his sister.

The female hokage smiled at this. 'You're not as cold as people think you are, are you?' she mused to herself. "I'll train you Gaara." she told the startled Sand-nins.

"What?" they both cried.

"I don't want you to train me," Gaara said. "I don't like you!"

"Tough luck, kid," she said almost evilly, with a grin that made their skin crawl.

Shukaku: (pokes Gaara's innerself) **SHE'S SCARIER THEN I AM..**

Inner Gaara: "No shit!!"

"Come on, I saw Naruto at the Ramen bar, let's go join him for lunch,"

Tsunade suggested leading them down the road.

Temari and Gaara exchanged a glance, then sighed and followed her. 'What the hell am I getting myself into?' Gaara asked himself.

* * *

ok thats the first chapter! I'm writing more during school. So if you like it, I'll continue, if not, well, I'll write more for Three Again instead. :-P 


	2. Training

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 2: Training

Another chapter!!! I've got a whole bunch of ideas for this fic and they all came to me today at school. I also thought of a good ending for it, but SNG poined out that you would all kill me, bring me back to life and repeat the process, so I changed it slightly. But I'm not telling so you have to wait till then.

* * *

Tsunade sat crosslegged on the grass at the edge of an open area in the woods, glancing over her book at a small dark figure growing bigger as it came closer. She hadn't really believed Temari and Kankurou when they told her that Gaara hadn't had any training since he was six and had no physical training at all, but now she was starting to believe it. He hadn't gone two laps around the clearing and he was ready to collapse. In fact....

Gaara stopped in front of her and collapsed on his hands and knees panting heavily. Sand was easy to run on, but he wasn't use to the hard ground and grass. Exausted he crawled over to Tsunade and collapsed again in the shade.

"You still have six more laps to run," Tsunade told him, turning a page in her book.

"I can't," Gaara panted. "It's too hot and my legs hurt."

"That's a good hurt," she informed him. "And it's barely eighty-five degrees."

"Hurting isn't good. Why didn't the sand stop the hurt?" Gaara asked.

"You shouldn't rely so much on the sand all the time. The pain in your legs is a good hurt. It means you're getting stronger," Tsunade said. "Get up and finish running or your legs will hurt even more later," she set a bottle of water down next to Gaara and stood. "I'll be back, don't you dare skip out." she turned and left, leaving Gaara alone in the clearing glaring at her departing back.

* * *

Tsunade entered an ice cream stand and ordered some. She was grumpy now. She had tried to return the book she had been reading to her office and was met with several jonins and enormous stacks of paper each were holding. They told her she had to do them now and set them on her desk. She sat down as they left and read and signed a few before getting up and trying to leave, but was caught and sent back. She read and signed a few more then climbed out the window and left. She was Hokage! No one should be telling her what to do.

"How's the training going?" Jiraiya asked sitting down next to her.

"The kid can't run two laps around the clearing without collapsing."

"It is very humid today, you know," Jiraiy told her. "I saw the sand girl just walking down the street looking like she was going to collapse herself."

"They live in a desert!"

"It's actually hotter here because of the humidity. They're not use to it (that took SNG forEVER to understand. Then she heard it in her science class and was like "ooooo! scientifical!)," Jiraiya took the ice cream he had ordered some time during their conversation and I forgot to put it in and am feeling lazy.

"Aren't you suppose to be training Naruto?"

"He just went on a mission with his team. Some easy job or something, he was pissed off about it," Jiraiya said waving good bye and walking off. "Don't be to hard on the kid."

Tsunade sat in silence for a while. She was being bombarded with various flashbacks.

**They're not use to it.**

**No one has trained him since he was six.**

**Who would train _me_?**

**Don't be hard on him.**

**Why didn't the sand stop the hurt?**

**The sand does everything for me.**

**Gaara's just like me.**

Tsunade sighed. What the hell was she doing?

* * *

Gaara leaned against a tree and drank the last of his water. It was too damn hot in this village! On top of that, his legs hurt and his chest hurt, and on top of _that_ Shukaku was laughing at him. He was so tired and Shukaku knew it. If only he could just--

"All done?" It was her. She was back. Damn woman.... Gaara turned his head away from her in clear reproach. "I brought you something." Gaara glanced at her hand.

"What is it?"

"Ice cream." Tsunade set the cup and spoon on his stomach. "It tastes good and it's cold." Gaara picked it up and tasted it. He paused to savor the sweet cold taste then ate the rest. "Sorry I was harsh." she said sitting next to him.

"You should be."

Tsunade gave him a death glare. 'Ungrateful little--'

"Thanks," came a tiny mumble.

"What?"

"Thanks." Gaara stood up quickly and walked away, stumbling slightly from his tired muscles. Tsunade smiled after him.

"Gaara, would you like to go on a mission with Team 7? It's a simple one, so you might get bored, but I think you'd enjoy it." Tsunade called after him.

"Who's Team 7?"

"Naruto's team." Tsuande saw Gaara stop and turn slightly.

"Ok."

* * *

Anyone looking at the Sand-nins new residence and property would think that it was a place of peace and tranquility. Until you look towards the lake and see an enormous cyclone sucking the water out of the lake and dropping it back in. Temari was quite pleased with her new accomplishments with her wind. Not only was it refreshing when the water came back down, spraying her, but it looked cool too. Her fan was no longer needed as she could summon destructive winds with a flick of her wrist, but she loved her fan and decided to still use it. If you also looking into the woods behind the house you would see a frustrated Kankurou and exasperated Neji.

"Kankurou?"

"What?"

"You're hopeless."

"I know...."

**A while later**

When Neji finally let Kankurou go the puppet user ran into the house and locked all the doors. He went to his room and turned the music on with the volume all the way up. He went down stairs to the kitchen and made himself an icepack to lay over his very sore eyes. He laid down on the sofa with his icepack for a while, listening to his music.

The door opened (more like kicked open since it was locked) and he heard Naruto's loud voice. Looking up he was met with the funniest sight he'd ever seen and he wondered if his overusage of the Kiokubun'ya was making him see things. 'Hell with seeing things, this is funny!' he decided.

Naruto had walked Gaara home from the mission to see his new house. The mission apparently had been some painting job; and Naruto seemed to have started a paint war. Their hair was no longer red and blond, but blue and white. In fact Gaara was blue from head to foot, and had probably lost the battle to Naruto since the leaf gennin had not as much paint on him.

"Hey, puppet man!" Naruto greeted loudly.

"Please go away," Kankurou groaned. "I have a headache.

Naruto laughed then said somethign quietly to Gaara and left. When he was gone Kankurou laid back down with his icepack. Gaara sat down and removed his shoes, but when he started to get up his muscles began protesting and he changed his mind and stayed where he was. Kankurou grinned glancign over at him.

"Why so blue?" he asked for a dumb joke.

Gaara glanced in his direction, but no glare appeared on him face. "I'm looking evilly at you right now."

Kankurou gave one of those tired half hearted but fully meant laughs. He looked over at him again wondering what the Hokage had put him through when he noticed Gaara was dripping paint all over. "Gaara, go take a bath, your going to drip paint everywhere."

"No," Gaara replied, staying where he was.

Kankurou sighed loudly and got up. "Look, I'm as tired as you are. I do not want to have to carry you up the stairs, but I will if I have to." Gaara didn't move. "The bath will make you feel better I promise," Kankurou told him. Gaara shook his head, flinging drops of paint onto the floor. Kankurou glared at his back then reached out and picked him up.

"Put me down!"

"No."

"Put me down now!"

"Or you'll do what?" Kankurou asked walking up the stairs.

"I'll squish you!"

"Just try," Kankurou replied feeling very bold. No answer. "Well?"

"I'll do it later," came the mumbled answer.

Kankurou laughed dryly as he entered the bath room. He set Gaara down and turned to leave. "I hope I don't have to undress you as well," Kankurou said as he walked out. He received Gaara's glare as he began to remove the paint covered clothes from himself. Later Kankurou came back in with a towel and his own robe for Gaara. "Your hair's still blue," he told Gaara.

"I know!" Gaara glared at him.

"You want some help?"

"No."

"Ok," Kankurou turned to leave.

"Yes."

Kankurou stopped. "Huh?"

"I do."

Kankurou smiled without turning around. "Bring the shampoo stuff down to the basement. There's a big sink down there,"Kankurou told him. Ten minues later, Kankurou was smiling at his work: the now completely redheaded Gaara. Gaara didn't return his smile but miserable went back up the steps tripping on Kankurou's too-big robe. On the bright side he did feel oddly refreshed and lightheaded, but he was still dog tired.

"KANKUROU!!!!" Kankurou cringed at Temari's screech. "WHY IS THERE BLUE PAINT ON THE FLOOR?!?!"

'Shit...' Kankurou went up the stair to try to explain himself.

"AND WHY IS--what?" Temari stopped screeching when Gaara said something quietly. "Oh. SORRY KANKUROU!!" she shouted thinking he was still downstairs when he was right in the doorway to the kitchen.

"IT'S OK!!!" he yelled back.

All three plopped down on the sofa with a loud sigh. Their life sucked.

* * *

The next day was hell for Kankurou and Gaara. Neji had decided to put learning how to control his chakra flow to his eyes, Kankuurou would concentrate on working with the things he wanted to do with the bloodline limit, such as the taijutsu. Neji didn't know the Sand's taijutsu, but he could teach him the basics and Kankurou could work from there. However, before he taught him anything, Neji told him he need to be more physically prepared, and told him to run laps and exercise some. One of the finer points of physical training is the sleep you get afterwards. Gaara however could not get that sleep and probably didn't know about it so he was in a bad shape when Tsunade came to 'train' him, making him run more to get himself use to the ground. Kankurou dicided to join Gaara and the two brothers ran around the clearing, and even extended it more then Tsunade had meant for Gaara, as they began competing for things like who could go the longest, and who was in front. This took both their minds off the amount they had actually run so they ended up going almost double the amount before Tsunade stopped them. Neji had come over to 'Gaara's training area' to see how Kankurou was doing and was shocked when Tsuande told him how much both had run.

The two went back to 'Kankurou's training area' and Neji told him he changed him mind. Neji began going over with the sand-nin the basics of taijutsu kankurou already knew, which actually happened to be a lot, the puppet-user just didn't know how to apply it. Kankurou also showed him the stance Suna's taijutsu had. His year of being a puppeteer caused him to lack greatly in them though, but Neji patiently corrected his stance where he saw openings. He also taught him palm striking from the stance and the movements involved. (sorry to those that I've lost. My dad teaches martial arts and I'm talking from that. Those of you who have no idea of what I'm saying I am sorry) Neji then told him to pick a tree and beat it up.

* * *

Gaara sat on the grass in front of Tsunade as she explained how to demolish something, like the enormous boulder Tsunade had founs and carried into the clearing. Gaara wasn't sure if he believed her when she said she could reduce it to pebbles with a flick of her finger, but he was interested all the same.

"Everything solid has a centerpoint on it that is it's weakpoint. destroying that centerpoint and the rest of the structure crumbles," Tsunade told him.

"How do you know where it it?"

"It's something you feel, like how much chakra you need to climb a tree or wall."

"Can you really break that thing with one finger?"

Tsunade sighed. "Yes."

"By finding that centerpoint?"

"No, I was born with incredible strength." She glanced at his disbelieving expression. She gave him a snobby look then with a 'ho-hum' look on her face, flicked the boulder with her index figer. It cracked, then shattered crumbling to the ground in tiny pieces.

Gaara stared.....for a loooong time with his mouth hanging open in shock. Inwardly he gave a tiny grin. 'I wanna do that...' he thought to himself as Tsunade instructed him to use the smaller rock she had mad to find the rock's centerpoint.

* * *

aw-wite!! sorry if my spelling or whatever is off. I took my contacts out and so I can't see th screen well unless my face is like two inches away, except then it make typing hard so it's all just a big complex situation. 


	3. Yorokobi

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 3: Yorokobi

Bwhaha! SNG isn't the only one who can have chapters with japanese names!!! Ha! ha-ha-ha! Ha!

Shukaku: **you're such a dork**

H-R: (in state of depresion in corner)

Shukaku: **we are sorry for the wait. The idiot is working with her highschool play. But she's not in it.**

H-R: (deeper depresion)

Shukaku:** she's been doing that for the past while instead of writing her ffs. but tomorrow (friday) is opening night** (H-R :D)** so by sunday she'll be back to normal.**

H-R: until the musical!! :

Shukaku:** .......damn.....**

SNG: (Gai-sensei pose) I WISH TO BE IN IT, AS WELL!

Kyuubi: I will now direct you to a peaceful scene while H-R's fans, SNG's fans, and Shukaku and I pummell the hell out of them.

* * *

Sasuke glared at the wall as the hot water from his shower ran down, washing the paint on him away. "Damn that Naruto," Sasuke muttered to himself. Not only had he started the whole thing, but he and that sand bastard had teamed up on him.

The Sand bastard.

Why the hell was he in the village? No one had seen hide or hair of a sand nin since the siblings left after he returned. Now the one he hated the most had been assigned to help them with their mission. His glare deepened when he remembered how excited Naruto had been and how Kakashi had simply smiled and said, "Is that right?" when Gaara had walked up to them with a note from the Hokage. And why hadn't Sakura taken his side, like she always did?

**Flashback**

"Gaara, you work over there where Sakura is, alright?" Kakashi said, not bothering to find out if it actually was alright, taking out his book and looking for a comfortable place to sit and read. Sakura looked at Kakashi like he just signed her exicution, but she quickly covered it up and tried to give Gaara a smile, failing miserably. Naruto and Sasuke were assigned inside painting while she and Gaara were outside.

As she began to paint she felt the sand nin watching her. Sneaking a glance in his direction she saw that he wasn't staring at her, but what she was doing then trying to mimick her movements with his brush. "Don't you know how to paint?" she asked, haughtier then she meant it. Gaara didn't reply, he just looked at her like she asked a stupid question then turned away from her. Sakura sighed as she continued to paint.

"I was never assigned missions like this."

"Huh?" Sakura looked over at Gaara who was opening a paint can with a kunai made of sand.

"I was always assigned missions for battle things or spying._ They_ didn't think I was good enough for anything else," Gaara frowned as he looked down into the white paint. "Besides, everything in Sunaga is covered in sand from storms and the wind. It'd be pointless to paint it. No one would see it."

"What about the inside?" Sakura asked.

Gaara thought for a moment. "It's all brown and sand colored," he said after a while. "At least our house was. Temari always complained about it, but never did anything about it. Kankurou covered his walls with posters and stuff so you can't tell what color it is." Gaara blinked when he realised how much he had said, he couldn't remember saying so much in one conversation.

"What about your room?" she asked, smiling, feeling much more relaxed.

"It's empty. So's my new room."

"Why?"

"......I don't know." Gaara watched her as she stirred the paint then poured it onto pans. "What's that for?" he asked pointing at the roll of duct tape.

"To keep paint off the windows," she replied, applying the tape to the house around the windows. She finished taping up the bottom part of the window, then looked up thoughtfully at the top part. Something suddenly lifted her up to the top, looking down she saw sand wrapped around her legs, holding her up higher so she could tape the window.

"SAKURA WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!"

Sakura screamed and almost fell backwards (almost cause the sand was still holding her). Sasuke was staring at her from the window he'd thrown open in front of her.

"Put her down!" he growled to Gaara, who glared back.

"S-Sasuke-kun, he's just helping me--"

"Put her down!"

Kakashi glanced up as Gaara brought Sakura back down to the ground, bringing the sand back to him. Sasuke jumped out the window and glared at Gaara, who simply turned and stormed into the house where he was sure the company (Naruto) wanted him more. What followed was of course the paint war.

**End Flashback**

Sasuke growled to himself as he turned the water off. Sakura had been mad at him for yelling at Gaara. Something about 'overreacting' and 'holding grudges'. The bastard had tried to kill her! Why the hell was she on his side? Then Naruto dumped paint on him and started the paint war. 'I hate my life!'

* * *

Neji gave Kankurou the run through of basic blocking instructions: one slow motion punch from Neji, one step back and one block from Kankurou. They ran through that for a while until Kankurou was confident to do it normal speed. (it sounds ridiculously easy, but it's like one of the hardest things to do. remembers when she learned this groan...). Neji taught him several more blocks, then counterattacks. Neji looked up at the sun and saw it was almost time for dinner. (SNG: Neji can tell stuff from looking at the sun! IN YOUR FACE GAARA! Kyuubi:...He can probably go it too, I mean, he doesn't wear a watch...)

"That's enough for today," he told Kankurou, who couldn't be happier. "Would you like to eat dinner at my house?"

The thought of eating Temari's cooking after training this hard made his sick. "Yes! yes _please_!" he explained why to Neji as they went down the hill and walked past the Sand house. Gaara was sitting on the porch looking bored with life, reading one of Kankurou's _Rorouni Kenshin_ mangas.

"Your brother can come to if he wants," Neji said.

Kankurou nodded and went up to Gaara. "Isn't that my book?" he asked.

Gaara flipped the book back to the front and looked on the inside where the name, '_Kankurou_', was written. "Yes."

"Did you ask?"

"No."

"Why are you reading it?"

"Because you left it in the living room."

"That doesn't mean you can read it."

"The you shouldn't have left it in the living room."

Kankurou smirked. "Neji invited us to go eat dinner with him, interested?"

"No."

"You'd rather eat Temari's cooking?" Kankurou asked, shocked.

"Temari went out to see someone (H-R: chough Shikamaru cough Shukaku:** stare** H-R: (sweet grin) Shukaku rolls eyes), she wont be back till later," Gaara replied turning a page.

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Ok," Kankurou turned and left pausing it see if Gaara would change his mind at the last minute, but he continued to read, paying no attention to his brother. "He doesn't want to," Kankurou told Neji.

"That's fine," Neji said leading Kankurou down the path to the Hyuga house.

* * *

Gaara opened the front door and found 'that pink haired girl' and the teacher from hell behind it. 'That pink haired girl' looked a little shy, but she was smiling again. Tsunade was grinning at him, but Gaara had no idea why and really didn't want to know. Gaara decided that saying 'what are you doing here?' would be a waste of breath so he waited for them to state why they had knocked on his door.

"Hi Gaara," Tsunade greeted. "Sakura had this idea and I think it's a good one, so we're going to do it."

Sakura folded her hands behind her back. "You know how you said your room was empty?"

"Well, I was thinking that maybe I could help you fix it up. I really like painting anyway."

Sakura's smile dropped for a second. INNER SAKURA: "Does this guy have a speaking problem or something?!!?" Sakura agreed with her inner self. "So I came by to look at your room and see what's to be done."

'Ok...not the reaction I was going for but ok....'

Tsunade stepped up and pushed past Gaara. "So let's see your room," she said leading Sakura up the stairs.

"Which is your room Gaara?" Sakura called. Gaara slowly trudged up the stairs. Tsunade was opening one door on the right. The wrong one, but Gaara didn't feel like saying so. Opening the door tripped the wire and shot several kunai at the Hokage, who batted them away. She stepped in and an explosive note sparked, but she crumpled it up. A bucket of water suddenly fell on her, drenching her from head to foot.

"Who's room is this?" she asked, turning to Gaara. A bucket of fresh sand fell down as well, coating her completely.

"Kankurou's," Gaara said walking past the door to his and opened it. Grumbling, Tsunade led Sakura inside but didn't go far in. They both groped the wall for a light switch, but found none.

"Gaara where's the light?"

Tsunade frowned at him and went to open the window and let light in. She didn't get far though as she tripped over invisible items on the floor, causing a loud clatter and crash. "What the hell?!" Tsuande tried to see what she had tripped over but it was still dark.

"I thought you said your room was empty," Sakura said.

Gaara walked past Tsunade and opened the window shade for them. The room was indeed 'empty' in the sense that it only had a chair and dresser in it (and clothes on the floor. he may be a homocidal maniac, but he's still a boy). However, strewn about the floor were lots of silver or glass items in small piles of placed randomly around the room. When the curtain opened, the light reflected off the stuff and sparkled on the walls and ceiling. Tsunade paused to look at it. Tsuande noticed Gaara's expression change as he surveyed his work. 'Likes shiny stuff, does he?' she said to herself. (SNG: THAT'S MINE! IT IS! I WROTE IT FIRST, DAMMIT! Kyuubi: SHUT UP! H-R: That means nothing to me. You take my stuff all the time.)

"Where'd you get all this stuff?" Sakura asked.

"Found it."

"All of it?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"........none of your business."

"Why's it on the floor?" Sakura asked.

"....." (he says that a lot doesn't he?) Gaara looked at her like she asked a stupid question and pointed at the lights. On closer inspection, the two girls saw that the piles and scattered objects were actually carefully placed on the floor so that the lights would hit the ceiling and walls, or other objects to reflect somewhere else. The sparkling colors glittered almost angelicly around them. "It's pretty," Gaara said turning away from them. (SNG: Leave 'im alone, ok, everyone has a hobby! (goes and hugs Gaara) Gaara: Unhand me, you freak.)

Tsunade smiled at his back as Sakura continued to admire Gaara's work. 'He really is a normal boy underneath,' she thought to herself. 'I might enjoy this more then I thought...'

----

all done this chapter (finally). sorry for the wait. also sorry that its going kinda slow. It will get better I promise. Next chapter is pretty much laid out I just have to find all the pieces of paper I wrote them on. Hopefully none of them were stuff I turned in to my teachers, cause I've been known to write on school papers when I finish the assignment early.


	4. New Clothes, New Style, New Mission

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 4: New clothes, new style, new mission

I've got nothing to say

* * *

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I REFUSE TO GO IN THERE!!!! LEMME GO YOU UGLY B--" a loud thwack cut the echoing screams of terror short.

Naruto and Neji stood on either side of the reluctent Gaara, making sure (on pain of torchre) that he didn't bolt while Temari tried to force Kankurou through the door where he had his hands and feet stopping his way. Gaara had never paid attention to Kankurou when he was have his 'periods of insanity', but the way he was carrying on now, the sand demon vessel began to think that 'The Mall' (DUN DUN DUUUNNN!!! dramatic soap opera music) was a very unplesent experience indeed. He glanced at a group of people leaving and had the sudden impulse to sneak away and avoid the whole thing. Neji and Naruto seemed to have sensed this and grabbed his arms.

"Aw, com'on Gaara!" Naruto said. "Going to the mall is fun! Even Neji likes it. He's here all the time in the Arcade." Neji nodded to back him up.

"In the what?"

Neji felt his whole world drop out from underneath him.

STARE.

"We're going to the arcade," Naruto said in an absolute voice.

"No, we'll do that afterwards," Temari said, dragging Kankurou up to them. "The three of us need clothes for this country since all our clothes are desert ones."

"Clothes?" Gaara looked down at what he was wearing and frowned. He'd never cared about what he weared except that it was comfortable to walk around the desert in. Kankurou had been wearing the same outfit for four years now.

"Why is Neji here?" Kankurou asked from the floor.

"He's going to help you pick clothes out," Temari said. She dropped Kankurou in front of Neji. "Well, you boys do your thing, I'm going to shop for my own clothes."

"Wha--huh?" Kankurou said pausing in his freak out. "You mean we're shopping seperately?"

"You and Gaara are going together."

"Oh, ok then," Kankurou stood up calmly and dusted himself off. Temari glared at him then walked away into the endless beautiful abyss that women love and no man in their right mind would willingly dare to venture.

Neji turned to the two sand brothers. "Do either of you know what kind of clothes you're looking for?"

"I got some normal clothes, but they're back in Sunaga," Kankurou said. Neji nodded then turned to Gaara. "Gaara's been wearing the same outfit since he was eight," he explained.

Neji pondered this for a while, studying Gaara. "You know I could see him in goth." he told Kankurou after a while. Kankurou looked at Gaara and nodded.

"Or skater type," Kankurou added.

Naruto and Gaara: .....?.....

"Follow me," Neji led them up to the second floor of the mall where dwelt a store that contained loud music and SNG and H-R's favorite clothes: Hot Topic. As they walked in, they were greeted by a teenager who called himself 'Spike'. Neji explained their 'predicament' and turned to introduce him to Gaara, but the Sand nin had long been destracted by the lights, colors, music, rings, braclets, earrings and other items that were shiney and was on the other side of the store.

"I want these," he told them.

"We'll get some later, clothes first," Kankurou called.

'Spike' had Gaara take off his sash and leather strap. then looked him up and down like Neji had done. "Small?" he pondered aloud to Neji.

"Probably extra small," Neji said jokingly (Neji made a joke!). He promply received a glare from Gaara.

"What's your favorite color?" 'Spike' asked Gaara, who was now glaring at Kankurou who was laughing at him or Neji. Who know the Hyuuga knew so much about clothes?

"......" Gaara turned to him. "Black."

"Easy enough.(it's practically the only thing the store sells) What else?"

"Red."

"What color do you hate?"

"Pink."

"He likes shiny stuff too," Kankurou said from where he was looking at shirts.

"Hold on," 'Spike' walked away, coming back a few minutes later with several items of clothes over his arm. He handed them to Gaara, who took them then glared up at 'Spike'.

"Why are they so heavy?"

Josh shrugged. "Mine are heavy too," he demonstrated by lifting his pants up and let them drop. He opened the door to the changing room. "Go try them on."

"Do you want help?"

Gaara paused. If Naruto helped him, and he looked funny, Naruto would laugh at him and never let him live it down. Same with Kankurou. Hot Topic might be short an employee if 'Spike' helped him. That left Neji, who he decided was the best choice. "Neji," he said going into the dressing room. Neji followed with a slight smile of amusement.

**(outside pov)**

"How do I put this on?"

"Like this."

"Turn around."

"Huh?"

Gaara made a noise like some one makes when their using their hands to talk. It sorta sound like "eeeh!" when you want them to turn around.

Neji gave a sigh and appartently turned around. Pause. "Are you done yet?"

"Hey!"

"Sorry!" (the death glare could be felt outside) "Do you want help?"

"(mumble grumble) yes."

Pause and ruffles of clothes. "Hold this.....give me your hand....other one....there. Done."

Silence.

"Let us see Gaara," Naruto called in.

"....no....."

"Does it fit him?" 'Spike' called.

"Yes," Neji answered.

"How many outfits do you want?"

"A few," Kankurou said.

'Spike' disappeared to find Gaara new outfits. Kankurou looked down at the ones he'd picked out for himself. Sighing, he pushed open the curtain that covered the dressing room ("Hey!") and stepped in. "I'm just gonna try mine--" he stopped when he saw Gaara, who was looking more self concious then Kankurou'd ever seen him. The puppet-user looked the sand-user up and down. "You look cool!" Kankurou told him as Neji stepped out.

"I do?" Gaara looked at himself in the mirror. He had on black shorts that came just past his knees with red seams and lots of useless zippers, rings, chains and straps hanging down. His new shirt was black, loosely skin tight (like a 'skater' shirt), with the words 'I'm here what more do you want?' in white on the front. On his left arm was an elbow length, fingerless fishnet glove. Covering that was a black fingerless glove with rings on the side (H-R is proud of herself. She drew Gaara like this next to Gaara-mirai. If you want the picture sent to you please contact my agent, Shukaku, via email or review).

"Yeah you do," Kankurou said, like 'duh'. He tried his clothes one, making a point of not taking his hood off in the process. After they had tried on and puchased their new clothes (they put the bill on the Kazekage's tab) they went down to the arcade and goofed off until Temari came down and helped the manager kick them out for 'disrupted behaver'.

* * *

When the sand nins returned home, Sakura was just leaving. She smiled and complemented on their new clothes, pausing a little longer with Temari to do that girl-clothes-talk-thing that I have yet to understand what's so facinating about it. "Oh, Gaara, Tsunade-sama said she needs to talk to you about something important," she pointed up to Gaara's room. "She's in there."

Gaara went in, but didn't go straight up. He went into the kitchen first and made himself a sandwich and got out a drink. he stopped in front of the mirror on the living room wall and looked at his new outfit. He shook his pants slightly to make them jingle lightly. He smiled ever so slightly, then went up the stairs. Gaara smelled the new paint before he stepped in. When he did, he stopped short, the sandwich about to be bitten, and scanned the room.

His room was no longer the annoying bleach white, but black with red fire-like marks (how they knew he liked black is beyond me). The floor wasn't cluttered with his stuff anymore. It was all carefully hung from the ceiling and window pane and sill. His chair was in the corner now and there was a new love seat sofa-that-was-also-a-bed in the room where Tsunade was reclining, sipping soda.

"What do you think?" she asked the speechless Gaara as Kankurou stepped in behind him.

"Holy shit...." Kankurou looked around the room. "Can you do mine too?"

"This is just a little present for Gaara. Besides, I'm mad at you," she said taking another sip.

"Why"?

"I've been in your room."

"Oh," Kankurou left, laughing, to go reset his booby traps.

"That pink haired girl said you wanted to talk to me," Gaara said.

"Sakura," Tsunade corrected. ('Mental note...') "Yes, I did. I have to go on a peace mission as Hokage that may take a long while. Such as a month or two." She paused for Gaara's reaction.

**She's bailing on training you,** Shukaku told him sneering.** I told you, who would want to train a monster like you?**

Gaara didn't answer the demon. He almost believed him. Tsunade mey be a bitchy-monster, but she acknowledged his hard work. Now she was leaving. His face must have fallen slightly, because Tsunade was looking at him extra kindly.

"I've decided to take you with me as my student and assistant," she told him.

Gaara's face visibly lit up. "Really?" he cried before he caught himself.

"Yep," Tsunade said holding back a laugh. "I'll train you mroe on the way," she stood and walk passed him. "You didn't think I'd leave you behind, did you? What kind of friend do you think I am?" she shut the door behind her.

Gaara continued to stare where she had been sitting. His hand slowly reached up and clutched his chest. It felt tight and swelled. "Friend..." he whispered.

"Gaara?" Temari opened the door and peeked in. "They did a good job didn't they?" she stepped up to him. "Gaara?"

He came out of his trace-like state with a shudder. He mumbled something, but Temari didn't hear him. She questioned him and he mumbled again. ".........she...acknowledges my existence...." Temari didn't understand what he meant (but we do, of course), but she smiled at him anyway.

* * *

Three days later Kankurou, Temari, Neji, Shizune, Jiraiya and Naruto saw them off. Naruto was pissed that he couldn't go, but he was a good sport about it in front of Gaara. He whispered warning to the sand nin, until Tsunade yelled at him and made him leave Gaara alone. The two turned and began walking away from the village.

"Gaara!" Naruto called after them. Gaara stopped and turned around. "When you come back, you and I can fight and see who's new justu is the best ok?"

Gaara nodded and raised his hand in good bye. 'Having friends is good.'

Shukaku: **(mumble grumble)**


	5. Neji's Secret

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 5: Neji's Secret

Heh-whoa peoples! I must put this in of SNG will kill me.

SNG: I will kill you.

I was having trouble coming up with ideas for this chapter. I knew what I wanted in it, but didn't know how to write it. She wrote part of it and I finished it. See if you can tell what's hers and what's mine. (prizes will be included)

* * *

Kankurou groaned a little, masaging his arm. _Stupid damn Taijutsu...._ _Why's it gotta be so hard?_

Actually, no. Taijutsu wasn't hard at all. It was just the fact that he had Revenge of the Trainer-from-hell teaching it to him (Tsunade has already been labeled as the Teacher from Hell). Neji was so obsessed with him getting every single little detail right, that training sessions sometimes turned to torture sessions. He did however notice that somethings like the four mile jog before each session were getting easier. He also noticed this morning in the bathroom that he had lost about ten pounds ("Go me!"). Maybe it wasn't that bad.

"You're done already?"

Kankurou jumped halfway out of his skin, and nearly pulled his arm out of it's socket. "Don't _do_ that!" he shouted at Neji, who had somehow (cough cough) crept up behind him.

Neji glared for a few minutes, then looked away embassased like, muttering something under his breath.

Kankurou raised an eyebrow, straining his ears to listen. When he didn't understand any of what the Hyuuga was saying, he asked, "What?"

"Can I....Mumble mumble..." Neji was turning into a male-version of his cousin.

Kankurou's eyebrow raised even more. "What?"

"CAN I EAT OVER YOUR HOUSE?!" Neji shouted. He gulped and his cheeks instantly turned a shade of pink.

_Is Neji... blushing?!_ "Why?" Kankurou asked suspiciously, crossing his arms.

Neji looked away again. "Because you ate over my house the other night."

"....So?"

"It's only fair, ok!?"

Kankurou cowered a little; Neji's face was so red, it was scary. "Um... ok?" _Very suspicious behavior,_ the puppeteer thought, watching Neji out of the corner of his eye as they were walking back to his house.

* * *

"...So Neji's eating over here tonight." Kankurou finished explaining the situation to Temari. It was annoying that he had to ask _her_ permission when he was the oldest in the house, but it saved pain later. 

Temari groaned. "Does this mean I actually have to cook?"

"NO! I mean... Ordering pizza is just fine..." Kankurou scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Hey, Kankurou," Neji called from where Kankurou had left him in the hall, "is this a picture of Gaara as a baby?"

Kankurou went to look. He couldn't help but snicker a little; it was a picture of him and Temari holding down a screaming Gaara who was trying to kill the camera. The picture was rather lop-sided, since the Cameraman had gotten tripped up by Gaara's sand, but it being the only picture of them together as kids, it was sufficiant. "Yep. That's Gaara." _Such nice memories..._

* * *

"So what do you guys think of Konoha so far?" Neji asked, selecting a piece of pizza from one of the many boxes Temari had ordered (She never specified their order, so the pizza guy just brought something of everything). 

Temari and Kankurou looked at each other.

"It sucks," Kankurou said firmly.

"I like the lake," Temari said at the same time.

They looked at each other again.

"Some of it's ok..."

"What about the people?" Neji asked, grimacing as he picked some pineapple off his pizza (SNG: Pineapple on Pizza is just wrong! H-R: Dayel puts everything he can think of on pizza. I think the only thing I've not seen him eat on pizza is mayo and thats cause he hates mayo. Shukaku:** I always said he was a freak.** H-R clobbers Shukaku).

"They're ok," Temari answered. They looked at Kankurou, who shrugged and made a "so-so" motion with his hand.

"What's Gaara think of them?" Neji asked casually.

"The Konoha people?"

Njei nodded, taking a bite of his pizza.

"Hates 'em all," Temari said at once. "I have yet to fnd anyone Gaara particulary likes."

"...Ohh..." Neji hung his head for a few minutes, during which Temari and Kankurou looked at him, then at each other.

"Very suspisious," Kankurou whispered to her while Neji heaved a big sigh.

"Let me handle it," she whispered back. In her normal voice, she said, "So, Neji?"

"Yeah?" His head popped up again, as if nothing had happened.

"Do you like anyone in the village?"

"In Konoha?" At her nod, he said, after a few moments of thought, "Nope, no one in Konoha..."

Temari gave Kankurou a knowing look. To Neji, she asked, "What about someone from another village?"

"NOT GAARA!" he said at once, in a very squeaky voice. His eyes widened for a slit second, then he muttered to himself, "Shit!"

"....Not Gaara?" Temari repeated, smirking.

"NO!" Again with the squeak. "Shit!"

"What's with your voice?" Kankurou asked, raising an eyebrow.

Neji thought for a moment, then answered, in the same squeaky voice, "Hiashi-sama says all boys' voices change at this age, and anyone who makes fun of me is just mean!"

"You sure it's not Gaara?" Temari brought the conversation back.

"No!" Neji said at once, in his normal voice.

"..." Temari and Kankurou looked at each other. "Hey, Neji, what color are Gaara's eyes?" Temari asked casually.

"Green," he said at once. "Well..." He thought for a moment. "Some people think they're blue, but they're actually a sort of white-ish green color.... actually, it's more of a cross between the two..." and he went on and on...

"But you don't like Gaara?" Temari repeated.

"No!" squeak. "...Shit!"

_Very suspicious behavior_, Kankurou thought, watching his "teacher" break out into a heavy sweat.

* * *

"That was the weirdest thing I've ever seen," Kankurou said, after Neji left, blushing furiously. "You just made me lose all respect for him in one sitting! How am I suppose to feel comfortable training with him tomorrow?!" 

"Don't worry. I won't let him rape you," Temari said casually, looking in one of her vast little detail books where she keeps all information she may come across during life. "Besides, it's totally clear he likes Gaara not you."

_I am surrounded by weirdos._ Kankurou shuddered. "What're you doing?"

"Getting a date for our little faggot," Temari answered, picking up the phone and dialing. She waited for a few minutes, then said, "Hi, is Sakura there?"

Kankurou's jaw dropped. "Temari!"

"Shh!" She waved her hand in his face. "Hi, Sakura? Yeah, I need a favor... Will you go out on a date with Neji? ...No, Sasuke doesn't have to know... You will? Ok, thanks!" She hung up.

Kankurou starred at her. "One, 'faggot' is _not_ a nice word! Two, THIS IS NOT GOING TO WORK!"

"Sure it will."

He gave her a look. "Temari, do you even know who we're talking about?"

"Do you doubt my skill?"

"....I refuse to be involved."

* * *

"LET GO OF ME, YOU SHE-BEAST!" 

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

"YOU HEARD ME!"

"OH, YOU ARE SO DEAD!"

Violence shortly followed.

Kankurou watched as his sister and his teacher began pulling each other's hair. _This is embarrassing...._

After a few minutes of bickering, a peace-treaty was drawn.

"Ok, fine, I'll let go," Temari began.

"Good." Neji walked away.

"GET YOUR BUTT BACK HERE!" Temari grabbed him and yanked him back.

"BUT I DON'T WANNA!"

"IT'S JUST A DATE!"

"BUT I DON'T LIKE HER!"

_Damn, these people are loud,_ Kankurou thought, covering his ears. _Who knew Neji could yell so much?_

"Why not?!"

"Because she's a girl?!"

"NO! (squeak) ...Shit..."

"Well, why, then?!"

"...I only like red-heads!"

"Like Gaara?"

"NO!" (squeak)

"You guys are making this alot more complicated then it has to be," Kankurou pointed out, stepping between them. "Let's make it simple. Neji, are you gay?"

Blush! "NO!"

"Ok..." Kankurou turned away. Then whirled back around, pointing down the street. "LOOK AT THAT! GAARA'S DOING A STRIP-TEASE!"

Neji whirled around. "WHERE?!"

"I rest my case." Kankurou walked away.

Neji blushed furiously. "I'm not gay!"

"Then why did you turn around so fast?"

"...Because I wanted to make him stop! There are kids in this village!"

"Oh, really? I thought you'd want to make him stop so you can take him home with you." Kankurou smirked.

"Welcome to the dark side, Kankurou," Temari muttered in his ear while Neji blushed furiously.

* * *

When Sakura showed up and she and Neji went to a tea shop for their 'date', Kankurou and Temari sat on the roof of the building opposite the tea shop and watched them. Nothing very exciting was happening, and Kankurou's mind began to wander. 

"Temari?"

"Yeah?"

"I just thought of a problem in your plan."

"Excuse me?" Temari glared at him.

"Ok, I think we've established that my instructer is indeed gay. However, the certain boy that he likes a lot also happens to be our brother and who knows our brother more then anyone?"

"Us?"

"Right. So, What kind of person is Gaara?"

"A crazy demon possesed homocidal maniac." (H-R: and i love him!)

"Right. Now, after we've established all this..." Temari nodded for him to go on. "How the HELL do we get Gaara to go out with Neji?"

"Exactly."

"NO!! My plan is perfect! I'll think of something! We have a whole month till Gaara gets back anyway," Temari crossed her arms and leaned against the building. 'Damnit!'

* * *

"That was the worst experience in my life," Neji mumbled as he walked home. Not to be mean or anything, but Sakura was really annoying sometimes. All she talked about was Sasuke or Lee or both. However, on his side of the conversation, he learned somethings about Gaara, which he thought he discovered oh, so sneakily. Unknown to him, Sakura wasn't stupid and did realise that yes she was only talking about Sasuke or Lee, but the only questions Neji asked were about Gaara. Neji, smiling began going over things he learned about Gaara that day. 

He was really cute as a baby. (H-R: yes he is!!) He like shiney stuff. He could do things that most jonins don't know how to do yet, but he had no clue on simple things like painting walls. Also, his sister was a monster who was dating Shikamaru, but that was a side note Neji didn't really care about. The demon inside Gaara tat made him stay up all night was called Shukaku (Shukaku strikes a 'ta-dum!' pose. H-R turns and stares.(crickets chirk) off the stage).

"Neji-nii-san?"

"GAAH!!!!" Neji literally jumped three feet in the air. Trying to recover what little dignity he had left he replied, "Yes, Hinata-sama?"

"How did your teaching go?" she asked sweetly.

Inner Neji : She's so adorable! "It went fine, Hinata-sama, Thank you."

"You're back later then usual, something happened?"

"The sand nin set me up on a date with Sakura," Neji answered huffily, showing how upset he still was on the subject.

"With Sakura?" Hinata asked confused. "But I thought you liked--" she caught herself and covered her mouth with her hand. "..someone else." she said instead.

"Yeah," Neji said slumped over as they walked down the hallway. "But..." he glanced around for any listening Hyuugas. "that person is on a mission with Tsunade-sama and wont be back for a long time."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Neji-nii-san," Hinata said, truly sorry. The two had become very close since the Chunin Exam and Hinata was the only person he ever shared his 'secret' to. He had told her about Gaara a few days ago and he was quite happy that she was very supportive about it. But right now that didn't change the fact that Gaara was gone and Neji was no longer in his happy place.

* * *

Kankurou stepped into the Hokage office. It had been a week and a half since the whole Neji insident and he found that the trainings weren't as bad as he thought they would become, but Neji was pretty pissed aobut the date thing. He had been called there by Shizune, who was covering for Tsunade. It was the first time Kankurou had been in the office when there wasn't a clutter of papers. Shizune was sitting behind the Hokage desk looking very important and official like with her elbows resting on the desk and her hands folded by her chin. 

"'Morning," Kankurou said.

"Good morning," Shizune greeted. "I have something for you." She motioned him over and held a scroll out for him. "This was delivered last night. It's to you and your sister." She smiled at him and shooed him out.

* * *

"What'd she want?" Temari asked when Kankurou returned. Kankurou held up the scroll and Temari looked at it. "Doesn't look official or anything. I don't think it's from Sunaga." 

"You know..." Kankurou said slowly, examining it. "I think...it's from Gaara."

They crowded around the scroll and Kankurou opened it. The kanji (duh people's it's a japanese show) was very messy and uneven like a child wrote it. They began reading the first few lines.

_'Temari and Kankurou, Tsunade-obaachan _("Tsunade-obaachan?" Temari asked. "Thats what Naruto told him to call her," Kankurou ezplained.)_ says my hand writing sucks so she said while she's in meetings I have to write something. So I wrote to you guys._ ("Aw! He thinks of us! I feel loved!")_ The meetings are very boring and I have to wait outside anyway. We're in the County of Grass right now, it's not that different from Konoha, except it's a lot duller. Tsunade-obaachan says she'd teach me this new jutsu that could 'save me life'. But she wont tell me what it is. Also I learned something else special, but I'll show it to you when I get back. I'm learning taijutsu and Tsunade-obaachan told me Hyuuga Neji is teaching Kankurou taijutsu, too. The meeting's over. -Gaara'_

"Aw, how sweet!" Temari said, taking the scroll from Kankurou. "He _wrote_ us a _letter_. He _cares_!!" she rolled the scroll up and hugged. "I miss him," she said sadly.

"You would hardly know he's here when he is here," Kankurou put in, taking out a blank scroll and pen thing.

"I know, but still," Temari noticed what he was doing. "What's that for?"

"I'm writing him back," Kankurou said, hunching over the scroll.

"I wanna write him something!" Temari said trying to take the scroll away.

"We can both write him something ok?" Kankurou said moving the scrol out of her reach. "But me first."

"Why you?!"

"Cause I'm the oldest! And it was my idea!" Kankurou gave her a 'thats final' look and continued to write.

* * *

H-R sing 'School of Hard Knocks' by POD. ta dum! This is my idea that I have been debating with Shukaku for the past couple of weeks. Sorry for those of you who don't like that kind of stuff. Actually, I'm not sorry, It's ur own gosh darn fault if you don't. So there (Sticks tongue out) 


	6. Likes and Blackmail

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 6: Likes and Blackmails

* * *

Kankurou was very proud of himself, thank you very much. Three weeks of training and he was _sparring_ with _no_ handicaps agaisnt Neji's Gentle Fist. Well, it couldn't really be defined as sparring, since all Kankurou was doing was blocking (penalty for not blocking right: he gets hit with Gentle Fist), but it was cool all the same. He'd gotten hit five times, but it still felt good when he blocked the rest of them. Even though Neji said he was only going to be blocking, Kankurou tried to find openings where he might be able to go on offense for a little while. But Neji's defense was incrediably secure and he found none.

"Good," Neji said, letting the Byakugan disappear. Kankurou let out a sigh and gratefully sat down to rest. "Kankurou?"

"Yeah?"

"(mumble mumble)?"

"What?"

"When is (mumble mumble)?"

"Huh?"

"WHEN IS GAARA COMING BACK?!"

"You don't have to yell I couldn't hear you!" Kankurou shouted back. He laid back down. "You asked me that yesterday and the day before. What are you, obsessed?"

"No! (squeak)..shit!" Kankurou gave Neji a look. "I just...he...I...goddamn it..." Neji fidgetted with his fingers and blushed while Kankurou laughed at him.

"Tsunade-sama said the trip could last a month at least. They've still got about a week and a half to go," Kankurou noticed the trees looked a lot less barren then they did when the sand nins first arrived. They also weren't green anymore. "What's up with the trees?"

Neji looked up then around. "It's autumn, where've you been?" he asked. "Actually, autumn's almost over and it's gonna snow soon."

"Really?" Kankurou looked back up at the trees. "I've only seen snow twice and both times were on a mission."

"It doesn't snow where you live?"

"Hello, desert."

"Oh right."

"Kankurou?!" Temari's voice echoed through the woods as she ran up the path towards their training area.

"Over here, Temari," Kankurou called. Temari stepped into the clearing and tried to catch her breath. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just got another letter from Gaara," Temari sat down next to him. Neji inched over to sit behind them and read over their shoulders.

"Man, his handwriting sucks.." Neji commented. "How do you read that?"

"If you stare at it for a while it begins to make sense," Kankurou said.

_Temari and Kankurou-We're in Hidden Mist village, but Tsunade says we're not staying fot more then the meeting lasts, she wont tell me why though. This new jutsu thing sucks. I have to keep this bandage on my head until the jutsu 'connects right'._

(there was a little drawing of a chibi Gaara squishing an deformed chibi Tsunade, blood flying everwhere and chibi Gaara looking tiumphant)

_She also said we were coming back to Konoha soon. I asked her why cause we've only been to a few places. but she wouldn't tell me and said it was a surprise._

(Chibi Gaara stomps on Tsunade's remains)

_It's really cold in Hidden Mist and it rains a lot._

(here note ended for a while as Gaara seemed to have run out of things to write. Instead he drew a few pictures, like a map showing where they had been with a little Tsunade and Gaara standing over Hidden Mist. There was also a list of all the Inns and gambling places they had stopped at, a check list of bets they had on each other (Gaara won all of them), or just squiggles)

_What is snow? Someone just said that it would snow in Konoha soon._ (Neji: he doesn't know what snow is!?" Temari and Kankurou: "Shh!")_ T__sunade-obaachan told me the other day the I was vertically challaged.._("Thats not nice," Temari commented.)_ So I said she had big boobs for an old maid._ ("Never mind...")_ Tsunade-obaachan says we're leaving now, _(The writing became messier, like he was walking and writing (which he was))_but I'm sure we'll stop at every gambling place we come across before we actually get near the end of the water country. She's sure I have money on me (which I do) and she's pissed that I wont lend it to her. I've been to a lot of gambling meetings with her and she's lost almost all her money. She really sucks at gambling.-Gaara_

* * *

Sakura sat on a bench by the river that ran through the village watching the leaves fall. Sasuke had been a real jerk a few weeks ago, then he was again the other day. She had voiced her thoughts to Naruto during a training session. She remembered his words: _"Sorry, Sakura-chan, but not to be mean or anything, but Sasuke's always been like that."_ He was right, Sasuke had always been like that, she just never bothered to notice. She sighed and looked up. Lee was walking up to her looking worried.

"Sakura-san, is something wrong?" he asked, kindly. He always was.

"Not really, Lee-san," she replied. She noticed a bag in his hand. "What's that?"

"Oh, just some hot dumplings. It's starting to get cold out," Lee commented. "Would you like one?"

"Yes, please," she said smiling.

Lee inwardly struck a pose. _Sakura-san smiled at me! I'm sharing dumplings with her!_ He sat down next to her and handed her the bag. They each took a dumpling out and began to eat.

"Lee-san?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you so nice to me?" she asked looking down at the dumpling.

Lee was taken aback by this question. Why indeed? Should he tell her that he loved her? That he thought she was the center of the universe? Her hair was the color of Cherry Blossoms that were now falling gracefully to the ground? "Because Sakura-san, I think you're a very nice person and a very beautiful girl." He didn't look at her when he said this, fearing her reaction. If he had he would have seen her eyes well up and her lower lip begin to tremble.

"Arigato, Lee-san," she mumbled taking another bite.

* * *

Later, Sakura was walking home from her little rendezvous with Lee, happier then ever. She was in such a good mood that when she saw Naruto stuffing his face with ramen at the Stand she didn't go over and yell at him or pretend she didn't know him. In fact she went over to join him.

"Hi, Naruto!" she greeted sitting next to him.

"Hi, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said grinning, his mouth full of ramen.

"Guess what!"

Naruto swallowed and thought for a moment. Why would Sakura be this happy? "Sasuke asked you out?"

"No."

"He said you looked pretty?"

"No."

"He said he hates Ino?"

"No."

"Is it something to do with Sasuke?"

"Nope."

Naruto over-exagerated a gasp. "No!" he said, clasping his hand over his heart. Sakura socked him over the head. "I give up then."

"Lee-san and I are going to go out," she told him.

Naruto: BARF!!!! "What?! I thought you didn't like him!"

"I didn't..not really. But we just talked for a while by the river and he asked me again and I said sure," Sakura said, taking the ramen she ordered and began to eat.

"Congrates Sakura-chan!" Naruto said clapping.

Sakura smiled slightly.Naruto was always nice to her too. Why hadn't she noticed this? She suddenly remembered that Naruto liked her a lot too, just like Lee. "I'm sorry, Naruto."

"What for?" he asked.

"You wanted to go out with me too, I'm sorry," she said.

"Aw, that's ok! I'm glad your happy," Naruto said smiling wider.

Sakura smiled back and finished her ramen, thinking hard. How could she make it up to Naruto without her wallet getting lighter. An idea came to her and she jumped up. "Thanks for the ramen," she said to the man, placing the amount on the table. "Bye, Naruto!"

"Bye, Sakura-chan!"

* * *

Neji sat in his room painting (another SNG reference. from Bozenjishitsu SNG: THAT'S MINE!!! Kyuubi: She just said that...) the scenery out his window. He was almost done, he just needed to finish the falling leaves and he would be done.......ok he's finished. He sat back and admired his work.

"NEJI!!!"

"GAHH!!!!" Neji jumped out of his chair, almost spilling the paint on the floor. He whirled around and saw Sakura standing in his doorway looking amused. "Don't do that!" Neji cried. "Who said you could come in here anyway?"

"Hiashi-san let me in, I need to talk to you," she said stepping in.

Neji broke out in a sweat. He hoped it wasn't about that 'date' they had been on. _Please let it not be that,_ he begged. He didn't feel like telling her that he didn't really like her at all, the sand nins had set him up. "W-what about?"

"About Hinata," she said.

Neji let out the breath he had been holding and turned to face her. "What about Hinata-sama?"

"She likes Naruto doesn't she?"

"No shit," Neji said capping the paint.

"Well, um, would you help me set them up on a date?" Sakura asked.

Neji thought this over. "But doesn't Naruto like you?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm going out with Lee-san," Sakura told him. _That poor girl_, Neji thought. "I told Naruto that and he was fine with it. And then I remembered how much Hinata likes Naruto and I thought you could help me."

Neji sat back and thought about it for a while. He was at the point of saying no cause it wasn't really any of his business. Sakura however, had a back up.

"If you don't help me I'll tell everyone about your little secret," she said slyly.

Neji's eyes bulged and he broke out in a sweat again. "W-what secret?" he asked in a shaky voice.

"You know, that you like Gaa-"

"OK! I'LL DO IT, I'LL DO IT!!" Neji cried, jumping up and clamping a hand over her mouth. Words were not safe in the Hyuuga house. Rumors traveled faster then Chouji after a piece of barbeque.

"I knew you would," she said sweetly. _I can't believe I just blackmailed Neji_, she thought. She was such a little demon.

* * *

Sigh nother chapter done.

You know, I'm really an easy going person and it really takes a lot to make me mad, or cry, and you know what?!! I've done both in one day! I'm really pissed and feel like yelling at some one. SNG's pissed too at the same person so we had a little thing going on for a little while, but yelling at each other when there's no point gets boring after a while though u know?


	7. Return

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter Seven: Return

* * *

Hinata was beside herself with glee, but shaking like a leave as well. Neji had come up to her the day before and stated that whether she wanted to or not she was going on a date with Naruto the next day. She was now sitting on her bed watching Neji go through her closet looking for an outfit for her. 

"Do you not own anything that's date worthy?" Neji finally demanded stepping away from the violated closet.

"Um...I ..I never needed an outfit for a..a date," Hinata said not looking at him.

Neji thought for a moment then walked out muttering that he'd be right back.

* * *

"WHAT?!?!" 

"You don't have to yell!" Sakura said, stomping her foot on the floor of Naruto's room.

"But I've never been on a date before," Naruto cried. "I wouldn't know what to say or do!"

"Naruto, I have never seen you unable to say or do anything," Sakura said. "Besides Hinata wont care. She like you a lot."

"Since when?"

(twitch) "Since like forever."

"And no one told me?!"

"It was plain as day, baka!" Sakura said. She went over to his drawers and began looking through them. "Don't you have anything that isn't orange?"

"Um..no. Well, I have my swirl shirt and the white pants Sasuke lent me and I haven't returned..." Naruto sat on his bed figiting.

"I'll be back," Sakura said heading for the door. "Stay here, and don't you dare move," she added as Naruto moved to stand.

* * *

Sasuke opened the door and saw Sakura standing there, smiling. "What?" 

"Sasuke-kun I was wondering if you could do me a favor?" she asked sweetly.

"I'm not going out with you," he said starting to close the door.

"No, I don't want to go out with you," Sakura told him.

Sasuke paused. Did he hear right? Sakura didn't want to go out with him? "Why the hell not?!" he asked, slightly offended. She'd been asking him forever and now suddenly she doesn't want to!? (Shukaku: **Any idiot who doesn't know this yet, H-R hates Sasuke. Like a lot.**)

"Because," Sakura said placing a hand on her hips. "Will you do me a favor or not?"

"What is it?"

"Do you have any nice none ninja clothes that I can borrow for the night?"

"....?..........why?" Sasuke asked suspisiously.

"So I can go out tonight as a boy and get laid," she replied.

"!!!!" Sasuke's eyes bulged. "WHAT??!?!"

"I'm kidding," Sakura said waving his reaction away. "It's none of your business. Will you lend me the clothes, or to I have to take them?" Sakura gave him a deadly look that made Sasuke's skin crawl. She had never looked at him like that. The only other time he'd seen that face on her was back in the first few episodes of Naruto when he and Naruto accidently kissed and Sakura beat Naruto up. Now he knew why Naruto had nearly dehydrated from sweating.

* * *

**  
Meanwhile, at TenTen's house...**

Tenten (Shukaku: **wow...you actually included her in one of you fics!** H-R: Shut up....) frowned as she walked into her room. Absolutely nothing in her room was where she had left it earlier. The closet was empty and its contents were skoon all over the floor. Her dresser was empty and her bed had even been moved as if someone wanted to look under it. There was a note pinned to the wall on the oposite side of the room. Tenten went up and read the note.

_Tenten, Hinata-sama needs an outfit for her date tonight. You weren't here so I helped myself-Neji_

"......" Tenten glared at the note and went back outside to demolish another tree in frustration with her weapons.

* * *

Tsunade took a deep breathe as she and Gaara (H-R glomps gaara: HE'S BACK!!!!) entered the fire country once again. It didn't matter how much Konoha ever got on her nerves, it felt good to be home. She turned to tell Gaara to hurry up, but there was nothing in front of her except her three bulging bags she had made Gaara carry for 'training'. Glaring evilly at the bags as though it was their fault, she grabbed the bags and went to search for a doomed sand-nin.

* * *

Sakura walked up to the place where she and Lee had decided to meet. Lee was already there with a bouque of flowers for her. He hadn't noticed her yet so she didn't approach right away. Lee wasn't wearing his green outfit, but black slacks and a botton down shirt. It made a world of difference. 

"Good afternoon, Sakura-san!" Lee called.

"Hi!" she called back. "Are you sure it's ok if we do the double date thing?"

"Of course, Sakura-san," Lee asured her for like the fifth time. "Naruto-kun has never been on a date before, so we should go to help him out." He didn't say anything, but he'd never been on a date before either and was scared spittless. Actually, Sakura was feeling the same way, the only other date she had been on was with Naruto, but that was only for ramen, so that didn't count.

They both smiled at each other and went to the restaurant where they were all meeting.

* * *

Five days later (yes it took Tsunade and Gaara five days to actually get to the village. What can I say? the villages in the fire country have lots of gambling places.) Tsunade and Gaara stepped through the Konoha Gates. 

And were immediately bombarded by people.

Everyone cheered as they greeted their Hokage back to the village. Neither Gaara nor Tsunade knew how they knew that they would be there. Both were being squished by masses of people. Gaara, knowing that no one in the crowd was here to see him, pushed his way through the mass of people and gasped for breath as he got out.

"GAARA!!!" Gaara looked up in time to see a purple blur run up to him and wrap it's arms around him in a hug. Over the purple blur's shoulder he saw an orange blur coming at him as well.

GLOMP!

"DOG PILE!!!!" Kiba suddenly came out of nowhere and knocked all three over and threw himself on top of them. (SNG: -jumps in, too- GRIN!)

"Why did you do that?" Gaara asked the energetic Inuzuma, fixing the beany hat he was wearing.

"It felt like the appropriate time for it." Kiba answered, climbing off with a grin.

Naruto and Temari (duh) got off Gaara and helped him up. Kankurou, and the other gennin (plus one chunin) stood not far away laughing or grinning at the site of Gaara getting glomped twice and dogpiled. Every one greeted him and Kankurou surprised Gaara (and himself) by giving him a (manly) hug. Temari made a small incohirent noise of joy then glomped Gaara again. Gaara, having never been glomped, hugged, or dogpiled before, was quite beside himself and did not know what to do.

"We missed you so much!" she squealed. "Guess what?" she didn't wait for him to guess. "We're going to have a party of some sorts."

**Flashback**

"WHOO!! This is a great party isn't it?!" a very drunk Tsunade shouted in Gaara's ear, as the miserable sand nin desperately wished that he could disappear.

**End Flashback**

"What sort of party?" Gaara asked, shivering at the flashback.

"Not really a party, we're just going out to eat," Kankurou assured him.

Gaara shrugged. "Ok."

The fifteen teenagers went to Fudruckers because H-R went their saturday for dinner and loved it. (Shukaku:** Their milkshakes were pretty good.** H-R: They were the best!) They pushed a bunch of tables together, ordered then sat down to talk. This is the order in which they sat: Gaara, Kankurou, Temari and Shikamaru, then Ino, Sasuke, Chouji, Kiba, Sakura and Lee, Shino, Tenten, Hinata and Naruto, Neji sat next to Gaara, but had no chance to talk to him because Narutokept talking over the Hyuga to the sand-nin. The few people who knew about Neji's 'secret' noticed the Hyuga's frustration and were trying not to laugh. Their orders were called and everyone got up to get their's Neji jumped up and offered to get Gaara's for him. Gaara sat back down and looked at Kankurou in confusion as his brother burst out laughing, banging his fists on the table.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gaara demanded.

Kankurou attempted to say something, trying a few times, but failed miserably and began laughing again.

Neji brought his and Gaara's plate down. "Do you want something to drink?"

That was it. Kankurou cracked and through that crack seeped the annoying ability that all siblings and friends (which he and Neji had become) possess to embarrass and annoy. "Oh, no!" Kankurou said taking Gaara's cup from Neji. "_I'll_ get it for him!"

Neji frown at him and muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "No, I'll get it for him."

"He's my brother, I'll get it for him!"

"No, I will!"

"I will!"

"I will!"

"I will!"

"I will!"

Gaara: "???"

"I will!"

"I will!!"

"You will!"

"You will!"

"ALRIGHT! FINE!" Kankurou grabbed the cup and stormed up to get the drink.

"Goddamnit," Neji muttered when he realised Kankurou tricked him.

Gaara tugged on Temari's sleeve. "I'm confused."

"Don't worry it's not your fault," she said patting his shoulder.

'Go Kankurou...' Shikamaru said to himself, covering his laugh by taking a drink.

* * *

Gots's nothing to say. 

Shukaku: **Thats a first...**

TWACK!!

Shukaku: .


	8. I love you

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 8: "I love you"

A/N: I know the italic talking has horrible puntuation, actually no puntuation. It's suppose to be like that.

Also I know I skipped over the date, I sorry. I'm not good at writing first dates (never been on one) Unless I later say otherwise, it went very well with many more to come on both sides.

* * *

After dinner and arriving back at the house, being constantly surrounded by people, Gaara finally found time to sneak out and have a few minutes of peace. Walking around a bit he found an old empty graveyard. He sat crosslegged in the middle, closing his eyes and his face screwed in determination. He could not yet control his own bloodline limit yet, it being the only thing Tsunade couldn't teach him. He did hear Kankurou saying that Neji told him to send the least amount of chakra as possible first to control it. 

**Hey kid.** Gaara jumped at the sudden voice, breaking his concentration.

"Yeah?" (I've decided that Gaara talks to the Shukaku outloud so from now on he's always talking outloud to Shukaku)

**You're not the best at controling your chakra. I'm warning you now, if you knock yourself out again, I wont hesitate.**

Gaara swallowed hard and began to rethink about opening it. He remembered something Tsunade had said during one of their training session.

**Flashback**

"I can't do it!"

"You haven't tried yet!" Tsunade yelled at him. "How do you know if you can do it or not until you try?!"

**End Flashback**

He swallowed again and made the seal. Releasing as little chakra as he could, he held his breath and opened his eyes. What he saw was distorted vision (like when you didn't put your contact in right and everythings funny). his face twisted in confusion.

**A little more, brat.** Shukaku said annoyed.

He did what Shukaku said and his vision began to clear. A sudden ping of fear sparked from nothing and he stopped his chakra flow. He sat back, feeling squirmy like he was doing something wrong.

Shukaku sighed inwardly. The kid was so worried about messing up and having him take over his mind that he wasn't trying at all.** Tell you what. I'll take a nap so I wont be tempted. You keep trying until I wake up.** Shukaku told him.

"What?" Gaara paused and listened for the demon, but heard nothing at all. He waited for another few minutes, then tried to open the Kekkei Genkai again. An hour later he was begining to get the hang of it. He didn't notice since he was to busy, but Shukaku had woken up a long time ago and was watching him, smiling slightly at his progress.

Gaara took a deep breath then opened the kekkei genkai once more and looked around the graveyard. He could feel the people walking around in the streets on the other side of the trees and bushes blocking his view of them. He could feel their thoughts and emotions. He could see chakra signitures floating in the air brought by the wind or drifting off trees. There were also people floating through the air. He stared at these until some of them noticed and began whispering amoung themselves. The voices drifted to him in an echoy fashion.

_The boy can see us_

_He's not of Konohagura..._

_He's a sand nin_

_I believe he can hear us too_

Two drifted over to him. A man and a boy. Gaara had never seen either of them before, but the boy reminded him of Naruto slightly.

_Good evening_ the man said bowing slight. Gaara didn't answer._ How is it that you can see us the undeparting dead_

"You're dead?" Gaara asked.

_Many years dead the both of us_ the ghost said.

"How did you die?"

_The both of us died on our own missions Nearly fifty years ago when the Third was still Hokage_

"There's a new Hokage now, the Fifth," Gaara told him. "Tsunade-obaachan."

_Tsunade_ both ghost stared at him in surprise and shock.

_Tsunade is my sister_ the boy said._ And Dan-san was her boyfriend_

'That crazy woman had a family?!' Gaara never thought about it before. He didn't know anything about his teacher's past except that the Third had been her teacher.

_Boy do you know Tsunade personally_ the man (Dan) asked.

"She's my teacher," Gaara replied.

Dan smiled. _Please tell her that we love her for us The dead cannot speak to the living as well as we are now_

Gaara nodded assuringly and they drifted away. He was about to close the bloodline limit when another came up to him. This one he recognized, in surprise though. "Hiashi?"

The man smiled at him. _Hyuga Hiashi was my twin brother my name was Hyuga Hizashi I am Neji s father_

"Why are _you_ dead?" Gaara asked curious. Again, he never sat down to think about the Hyuga's family either.

_I saved my brother from death_ Hizashi told him, smiling with that wisdom look that most Hyuuga's have._ What is your name and how have you come to see the undeparting dead_

"It's my Bloodline Limit, Kiokubun'ya," Gaara told him. "I'm Sabaku no Gaara."

Hizashi paused for a moment._ Oh _you_ are Sabaku no Gaara My Neji kun tells me a lot about you in his prayers_ (u know how japanese people pray to their deseased relitived to assure them how they are doing)

_He likes you did you not know_

"Huh?"

_He s in love with you but I suppose that was not for me to tell_

In his confusion, Gaara lost his concentration and his hold on the bloodlimit and the ghost of Hyuga Hizashi disappeared.

* * *

Gaara went home shortly after and noticed Kankurou going up the stairs. "Kankurou?" 

"Yeah?" Kankurou turned and looked at Gaara standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"I need to talk to you."

"'Bout what?"

"....something.."

Kankurou gave him a funny look the followed him up the rest of the stairs into Gaara's not-so-newly decorated room. "What's up?"

"What does 'in love' mean?"

Kankurou stared at him for a while trying to let the words make sense, but nothing happened. "Huh?"

"Someone said 'in love'. What does it mean?"

"It means that you like someone and you wanna go out with them, like on a date," Kankurou said, still confused. "Where'd you hear that?"

"Someone said Hyuuga Neji was 'in love' with me," Gaara replied, confused himself.

Kankurou: O.o "Who told you that?"

"A Hyuga," Gaara replied deciding that he'd explain the ghost thing later.

"O......k.....Um....esh--yeah Neji likes you a lot," Kankurou said, not quite sure how to put it. He realised Gaara probaby didn't understand the whole gender love thing on top of the actual process, which would make things a little easier. At least Gaara wouldn't freak about it. "He wants to spend time with you, be your friend...a good friend."

"...why?"

"I have no clue."

"Naruto is my friend," Gaara stated.

"Esh...Neji wants to be a different kind of friend."

"There're different kinds?"

"Sure, Naruto, I guess is your 'best' friend. Neji wants...to be your," Kankurou stumbled as he spoke the next phrase, " 'boy'...friend."

"Oh," Gaara said in the way people do when they still don't understand something but they don't think the other person could explain it so they don't ask anymore.

"Kankurou! Gaara! Dinner's here!" Temari called up the stairs.

"Great idea," Kankurou said grabbing Gaara's shoulders, "ask Temari, she could explain it better ok?"

* * *

"Temari, what does 'in love' mean?" 

Temari looked up from her rice, then looked thoughtful. "Being in love is a feeling you get when you like someone a lot and you want to spend more time with them," she said smiling. "Why?"

"(cough) he knows (cough)," Kankurou said before taking a drink.

"Oh."

"What?" Gaara asked.

"(cough)Neji(cough)," Kankurou answered.

"_Oh_," Temari said her eyes widening. She turned to Gaara. "Are you ok with this?" she asked kindly.

Gaara: Blank look.

"Cause it really doesn't matter to us if you are," she assured him. (blanker look) "Cause we're your brother and sister and we want you to be happy." Kankurou nodded his agreement at Temari's kick under the table.

Gaara was now dead confused. They weren't acting like this before he left. "What happened to you all while I was gone?" he asked.

"Huh?" Temari and Kankurou asked.

"Everyone is acting strange," Gaara said, deciding to speak his thoughts. "First, you all hugged me when I got home--"

"We missed you! Hugging is a thing friends and family do when they miss each other!" Temari said frowning (more like pouting but pouting doesn't work on Gaara).

"Second," Gaara continued not paying any attention. "Neji was acting weird at dinner, and then _you_," he turned to Kankurou, "started acting weird too."

"Kankurou was just trying to make Neji nuts," Temari assured him. "Teacher-student thing, like what we use to do with Baki."

"Then what was wrong with Neji?" Gaara asked.

Temari sighed and sat back. "Ok, you know how Shikamaru and I go out together to see movies, or go to dinner and such?" Gaara nodded. "Well, that's called dating. It's something you do with another person because you like them."

"So you can date lots of people?"

"Well, it's preferred that you only date one at a time," Temari said, glad to see he was paying attention. "You should be in love with someone to go out with them first."

"I thought love was something where you wanted to protect someone," Gaara said, repeating what Yashamaru had told him.

"You do. It's a feeling inside," she said, placing her hand on her heart, "where you feel as though you would do anything for that person. The things you do for that person to make them happy or show that you care, is giving them love."

**Gaara's Flashback**

_"Love is a troublesome medicine. It must be given to you."_

**End Flashback**

Gaara's eyes widened slightly. "Oh."

"You can love many people at once," Temari continued. "Not just one. For instance, I love Shikamaru very much, but I also _love_ Kankurou..and you, Gaara. I may be nasty to you guys sometimes, but that doesn't mean I don't love you. You are my only brothers and I'd do anything for you." she smiled at both of them as they had a moment of silence.

Kankurou was biting his tongue to keep himself from crying. '_...not gonna cry..not gonna cry..._' It was a very touching speech and Temari had never said that she actually loved him. I mean, she was his sister and therefore forced by the forces of nature (god that sounds lame) to have some feelings for him, but she never actually came out and said it.

Gaara stared at nothing in particular lost in his own thought. He knew love had to be given, that was why, when he decided that he was alone and always would be, he loved himself. But the whole time, Temari was loving him and giving him love and he never notice. His chest suddenly felt very tight and a knot formed in his throat.

Temari continued to smile, but inside she was frantic. '_oh, my god!! I just said out loud that I loved Shikamaru! Kankurou will never let me live that down!_' She didn't know that her little speech had made him completely forget all of that part.

When the pain in his chest and knot in his throat dispersed, Gaara looked up. "But what about Neji?"

Temari smiled again. "Neji wants to give you love, like I give to Shikamaru," she told him. "And he wants you to give him love back."

"But I don't know how to give love," Gaara said.

"It's not that hard, it comes from here," she reached over and patted his chest over his heart.

Gaara sat and thought for a while then stood and began walking out of the kitchen to go upstairs. He stopped at the door. "Kankurou, Temari?"

"Yeah?"

"....I love you, too," he said before going upstairs.

And that was it for Kankurou. (sob)

* * *


	9. Hot Chocolate

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 9: Hot Chocolate

This is H-R's favorite chapter (the beginning any way) enjoy :D

* * *

Gai strolled down the streets of Konoha as if strolling down the streets of Konoha was the best thing he'd ever done. He was on his way to train his students. He had a great lesson planned out about how to deal with the troubles of youth. Of course after this there would be lots of taijutsu work outs and maybe a few genjutsu and sparring lessons. But the Lecture was more important then anything else. Some one had to give a spark of hope for the growing youth! If no one else would do it, then it was all up to him!!! 

Gai struck a pose, pointing at the sky in front of him. "YES IT IS ALL UP TO ME NOW!!!!! AHAHAHAHA--" he stopped when he noticed a certain red haired sand-nin sitting on a bench looking deep in thought.

* * *

Gaara sighed again. Even though Temari had explain so that he understood about being in love, he still didn't know how to give it. He barely understood how to receive it. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the green figure step up in front of him. 

"GOOD MORNING, GAARA!!" Gaara visibily jump at the sudden voice and stared up at the insane green man in front of him. "HOW ARE YOU ON THIS FINE MORNING?!!?!"

"Uh.."

"WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING HERE WASTING YOUR YOUTH AWAY?!!?" Gai demanded, cutting him off and making him jump again. "IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO, YOU SHALL COME WITH ME TO TRAIN WITH MY STUDENTS!!!" Gai grabbed the stunned sand nin and hauled him away to the training ground his group used.

On the way they past Kiba and Shino walking Akamaru. Of course Gai had to stop and comment on how proud he was that they were not wasting their youth away. Shino and Kiba glance apprehensefully at the now terrified Gaara under one of his arms. Gaara gave them a look that said: 'please help me!!'. Unfortunately, neither Kiba nor Shino had time to do anything because Gai suddenly realised he was late for the team meeting and ran away leaving behind a cloud of dust and a sweat drop Kiba and Shino.

* * *

"GOOD MORNING STUDENTS!!!!" Gai greeted at the top of his lungs as he stepped into the clearing. 

"Good morning Gai sensei!" Lee greeted back. "But, Gai-sensei, you're late!"

"YES, AND I APPOLOGIZE FOR THAT BUT ON THE WAY I FOUND SOMEONE WHO WAS WASTING HIS YOUTH AWAY, SO I INVITED HIM TO TRAIN WITH US FOR THE DAY!"

Lee, TenTen, and Neji looked at the harassed looking boy under his one arm. Neji's eyes bulged, Lee tried not to laugh, and TenTen looked upset.

"But, sensei, he's a sand-nin," she said, still not on good terms with the three.

"So what?" Neji hissed in her ear. TenTen turned and stared at him, but he was looking everywhere but at her.

"TENTEN, MY DEAR, YOU DO REALIZE THAT MADAM HOKAGE-SAMA HERSELF IS TRAINING GAARA. AND OUR NEJI IS TRAINING KANKUROU, THEY ARE NOT THAT BAD!" Gai assured her putting Gaara down. He then had them sit down in a row and listen to his short lecture which ended up to be about two hours.

Gaara leaned over to Neji. "What's wrong with your teacher?" he whispered.

"He's always like this," Neji whispered back, happy Gaara sat next to him.

Gaara gave him a look.

As the lecture was coming to a close, Gaara notice that TenTen looked at though she was being brainwashed and zombified. Lee was hanging on to every word the freak in front of them said, although apparently he forgot his memo pad and couldn't write it down and was having a hard time remembering everything. Neji was meditating not paying any attention at all to his teacher.

"ALRIGHT, MY STUDENTS!!! WITH THAT PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE AT YOUR DISPOSAL, WE WILL NOW BEING THE TRAINING!!!!" Gai screamed at the trees. "WE WILL RUN 50 LAPS AROUND THE CLEARING!!!" ( H-R does the math four days after she wrote this and realizes thats like 13 miles. good god...)

Gaara brightened up slightly. He had heard from Naruto that Gai gives insane training sessions, but this was nothing compared to what Tsunade put him through. Running was now his specialty. As they began to run, Lee and Neji fell in place with Gaara.

"Are you ok with running this much?" Neji asked. Even he had trouble running this much sometimes.

"Yeah, Tsunade-obaachan's training is much worse," Gaara stated.

"Really?" Lee asked, surprised. "She must have taught you a lot of cool new stuff."

Gaara groaned and had various flashbacks of training, the 'new jutsu' that he couldn't use unless his life was in danger, the 'new jutsu' that made him pass out from lack of chakra everytime he used it, and of course Tsunade taught him how to run away very fast from enraged gambling houses and how to carry luggage for a very long time. He glanced at his right arm then grinned slightly. (ooh, cliff hanger for later chapters heheheh Shukaku: **That was the most pathetic evil laguh ever...** H-R Blush: shut up...) "Yep, I have," Gaara said.

"Would you like to race me?" Lee asked.

"Huh?" Gaara looked up at him in confusion.

"Who ever finishes second will have to do 1000 sit ups and 2000 punches!!" Lee offered.

"How about whoever finishes second has to buy the first ice cream?" Gaara said. Like hell he was doing 1000 sit ups and 2000 punches!

Lee looked disappointed. What a lame punishment... but.. "YOU'RE ON!!" Lee sped up leaving Gaara and Neji in the dust. However, Gaara also sped up two seconds later leaving Neji in the dust. Neji let them have their fun. He wasn't going to participate in a game like--

"NEJI!!!! SPEED UP!!! LEE AND GAARA HAVE LEFT YOU IN THE DUST!!!! YOU AREN'T GOING TO LET THEM BEAT YOU?!?!!?" Gai screamed from where he was over looking them.

'_Well, I really don't care_.' Neji thought to himself.

"YOU'RE GOING TO LET LEE BETTER YOU IN SOMETHING?!?!!?!"

Stab.

"AFTER ALL THE HYUUGA BOASTING YOU'VE DONE, YOU'RE GOING TO LET LEE BEAT YOU IN A LITTLE RACE?!!?!?"

Stab. '_Goddamnit..._'

"AND GAARA TOO?!!?!"

"ALRIGHT I'M RUNNING!!!!" Neji screamed back at his teacher and sped up to catch up with the two racing gennins.

**A while later...**

"I WON!!!" Neji yelled as he skidded to a stop at the finish line.

"GOOD JOB NEJI!! I KNEW YOU HAD IT IN YOU!!!!!" Gai screamed in his face, hugging him.

"ACK!!!!! LEMME GO! LEMME GO!!!!!!!!!!" Neji screamed.

Gai dropped Neji and turned to Gaara who had come in second. "YOU CAME IN SECOND, GAARA!!!! NOW ACCEPT YOUR PUNISHMENT AND GO GET NEJI SOME ICE CREAM!!!!!"

Gaara cringed at the loud voice as he gasped for breath. So what, it was a stupid punishment anyway. He had set that 'punishment' so that either way, he wouldn't have to do anything, and he could get some for himself. (Tsunade's got him hooked)

Lee grinned after the two. Sakura had told him about Neji's secret and he had promised to keep it ("Anything for you, Sakura-san!!"). He had challanged Gaara for the fun of it, but then Neji joined and he decided to let one of the two win. YES!!, he was a sneaky person!! (H-R snickers at her favorite green taijutsu specialist's stupidity)

* * *

"Are you sure we should get ice cream?" Neji asked as they walked through the streets of Konoha. "Wouldn't hot chocolate or something be better?" (it's winter remember?) 

"What's that?" Gaara asked.

"Hot chocolate?"

Gaara nodded.

"You don't know what Hot chocolate is?!?!"

"Um..no?"

Neji grabbed Gaara's wrist and dragged him through the streets to his favorite hot chocolate stand. On the way they passed Temari, Kankurou and Sakura, who laughed together at the funny scene of Neji dragging a chibified, confused, and shocked Gaara through the streets, leaving dust in their trail.

"Two hot chocolate, please, ojiisan," Neji said sitting down on a stool.

"Good evening, Neji-kun," the man said smiling. "Would you like marshmellows too?"

"What's a marshmellow?" Gaara pondered, chewing on a cracker from the basket on the counter.

Neji and man get that Scream look from that one painting thing, of pure terror or shock. "B-both with m-marshmellows, p-please.." Neji said, in shock.

"Ok."

Gaara continued to munch on the crackers as they waited for their drinks, wondering what the heck this 'hot chocolate' was, and what the hell was a marshmellow anyway?

"How's the training with the Kiokubun'ya?" Neji asked for conversation.

"Ok, I guess," Gaara replied. "Tsunade-obaachan doesn't know how to teach me how to control it except for the basics, though. I've been training my self with Shukaku's help."

"Oh."

"But I went to an old graveyard earlier and I used it for a while," Gaara told him, pleased with himself thank you very much. "Did you know the blood limit can see ghosts?"

"I think I heard Temari talk about it before. But she said she could barely see them. Kankurou hasn't tried yet," Neji replied.

"Well, I can see them, and talk to them."

"Really?" '_cool...'_

"I saw Tsunade-obaachan's brother and boyfriend," Gaara suddenly stopped. That's what Kankurou said Neji wanted to be. God this was confusing.

"You talked to them?"

"Yeah, but it was boring. Then I saw someone else," Gaara said.

"Who?" Neji asked as the man placed their drinks in front of them. "Oh, here, careful, they're hot."

Gaara looked down at the drink in front of him, then reached down and poked the white puff balls floating in it. "What is this?"

"It's the marshmellows, they are good, trust me," Neji said, sipping his own.

Gaara picked the cup up and sniffed it. The wonderful smell of chocolate drifted up to him. He took a sip and savered the taste for a bit. Then he took a gulp of it, and began choaking on the sand that sprung up to stop the drink from burning him.

"Are you ok?!" Neji asked jumping up. "I told you it was hot," he said patting Gaara's back. He waited while Gaara got a hold of himself and spat the rest of the sand out of his mouth. "Let's wait a bit until it cools ok?" Gaara nodded, reaching for another cracker. It had been a long time since he'd done something like that. "Anyway, who did you see in the graveyard?" Neji asked sitting back down,

"I saw your father," Gaara replied, chewing on the cracker, then spitting more sand he'd missed out of his mouth.

"My--!" Neji stared at him. "What?"

"Hyuuga Hizashi," Gaara said. "He's you're father right? That's what he told me."

"You saw my..." Neji stopped and stared down at his drink.

Gaara looked over at him. He looked very upset and Gaara couldn't understand why. No one had ever been precious to him before he met Naruto and made Temari and Kankurou precious to him. Therefore no one precious to him had died and didn't understand why it was a bad thing.

"Did--did he say anything about me?" Neji asked not looking at him.

"He said you talk about me a lot," Gaara stated.

"That's not what I meant!" Neji said, harsher then he wanted. "What did he say?"

"Nothing," Gaara said looking at him funny.

"No, he must've said something! What is it?!" Neji stood up and grabbed Gaara's shirt. Gaara didn't answer. Neji had yelled at him and he hated when people yelled at him, especially when he didn't understand why. Because he didn't answer Neji gave him a shove then stormed away.

Gaara stared after him then turn and stared down at Neji's untouched drink. He picked up his and finished it. He paid for both then stood and also stormed away in the opposite direction to Tsunade's office.

* * *

Tsuande looked up when he entered and smiled. "Hello Gaara, this is unexpected! I usually have to track you down, and here you've come to keep me company. What's the occasion?" Gaara slumped down in a chair and pulled his knees up to his chest. Tsunade looked down at the papers she was suppose to be reading, then glanced up at Gaara. "What's wrong, chiisai-kun?" 

"Neji's mad at me," Gaara said resting his chin on his knees.

"Really..."

"I don't understand why."

Tsunade frowned in concern and went over to sit in the chair next to him. "What happened?"

Gaara told her what happened since he came home from the party. Tsunade listened closely, smiling inwardly. She had never heard Gaara talk so much in one sitting. But then she looked concerned as he told her about the event at the Hot Chocolate stand.

"Why did he get mad at me?" Gaara asked looking up at her.

Tsunade sat back for a while and thought. She knew why he did, but explaining it to Gaara might be a little harder then usual. "If Temari and Kankurou died, would you be upset?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Neji's father dying was as hard as Temari and Kankurou dying would be for you."

"Why? I wasn't upset when my father died," Gaara told her.

"Well, that's because your father and Neji's father were different. Neji loved his father and his father loved him and when he died it was very hard for Neji," Tsuande explain. "It's a different situation."

"Oh."

"The fact that you can see him and he can't hurts alot," Tsunade said.

"But I don't understand!" Gaara insisted. "Why is he upset!?" He covered his head with his arms in frustration. Tsunade felt a wave of pity for him. For someone who use to kill with no remorse and never having someone they cared about die, the situation must be hard to understand.

Gently she pulled his arms away from his head and gave him a hug. "It's ok, you don't have to understand yet. But you will later I promise." Gaara relaxed against her as she scratched his shoulder.

Knock-knock.

Both sat up and Tsunade called for them to come in. The two Chunin who H-R figured their names out and has inconviniently forgotten stepped in. "Hokage-sama, have you finished those documents yet?" the one asked.

"I'm nearly finished," Tsunade told him. "Something came up."

The two chunin glanced in Gaara's direction, but the sand nin didn't acknowledge their presence. They placed their stack of papers down on her desk saying something about the rest of the documents and left with a bow.

Gaara stayed with Tsunade the rest of the evening just to keep her company. Neither spoke since Tsunade was reading the papers and Gaara seemed to have maxed out his length of speech. When it grew dark Tsunade walked him home, assuring him that Neji wouldn't be mad forever. When they got home Temari was wrapped in a thick blanket shivering on the sofa.

"What the _hell_ is wrong with this village?!" she demanded as Gaara took his shoes off. "It's freezing!!"

"It _is_ cold in here.." Tsunade noticed as she stepped in. She went down the basement to check stuff that H-R knows not their names but is actually very good at fixing them. A little while later she came up. "Oh dear."

"That was a bad 'oh dear'," Kankurou said, coming in from the kitchen.

"Your heater's broke," Tsuande said.

"What's a heater?" (desert, they don't need one it feels like a cool spring morning at night)Kankurou asked munching on some chips.

"It's what makes the house not this cold," Tsunade said. "I'll see if I can get someone to fix it tomorrow."

"What about tonight?!" Temari asked.

"Well, you could deal with it, or go somewhere else for the time being," Tsuande said.

"Where would we go?" Kankurou asked as Gaara reached over and took some chips from the bag.

"The closest place is the Hyuuga's," Tsuande said thinking about it. "Or you could split up and sleep in different places."

"Let's try the Hyuuga's," Temari said without asking her brother. She was to protective to let them go somewhere by themselves. Tsunade walked the whole five seconds (not really) to the Hyuuga residence and asked ifthey would allow the Sand nins to stay for the night.

* * *

End.

J/K

OH!! side note!! Three Again got over 120 reviews!! yes!!! I beat Genius in Love!!


	10. Night at the Hyuga's

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 10- Night at the Hyuga's

* * *

Of course, as you might have guessed, the Hiashi said it was fine if the Sand-nins stayed at the Hyuuga estate for a while. So they packed what they needed and hiked over. Neither Gaara nor Temari had ever been there before and Kankurou had only been there once for dinner. Apparently the Hyuuga's all lived in the same enormous, laid out mansion, like a bunch of houses all connected. Almost every Branch family member was subjected to protect a Main family member and had a room near each other. They learned this because Hiashi had to be at a meeting and he went to Hinata's room to ask her to get them settled and it happened to come up in the conversation, because Neji's room was right across from Hinata's. 

Hinata smiled at the sand nins as her father bowed and said goodnight. "This way," she said leading them through the halls where they came, but turned down the other fork. "Temari, this is you're room," she said opening the sliding door. "It's made for a Main family member, so it's a bit better then the others.

"Thanks Hinata-kun," Temari said stepping in to see her new temporary room.

"You and Gaara will share the room across from her's," Hinata said to Kankurou and Gaara. "It's a branch house room, so it's a little smaller, but it's the closest one to Temari's room." she told them opening the door.

"T-that's fine..." Kankurou stuttered looking in. If this was a branch house's room, he'd like to see what Temari's room looked like. It was all old fasion japanese style, but it was very beautifully decorated.

"I'll go and get bedding for you three," Hinata said as she went back down the hallway.

"Don't even think about it," Kankurou said to Gaara who was inching towards the gold and silver decorations throughout the room.

Gaara glared at him as the puppet user went to the closest and looked in. He pulled out two robes and threw one at Gaara. "I'm not taking a bath," Gaara told him looking at the robe in question.

"Traditional families sleep in robes, didn't you see Hinata's?" Kankurou asked, changing. "These are warmer then the other ones in there, so these are winter robes." He finished tying the robe and looked out the window as Gaara also changed.

* * *

"Hinata-sama, what are those for?" Neji asked, peeking out of his room as his cousin walked past with bedding. 

"Mm, Temari, Gaara and Kankurou are spending the night until the heater in their house is fixed," Hinata told him, smiling. "You can have a chance to talk to Gaara," she said smiling shyly. Neji gave a humph noise. "Huh? What's wrong?" she asked putting the bedding down for the time being.

"Nothing," Neji said turning to go back in his room.

"Liar!" Hinata accused sticking her foot in the door so he couldn't close it. "What's wrong?"

Neji stared at her then glanced around looking for listening Hyuuga's. Seeing none he told her about what had happened. She listened closely then stood back in thought.

"Oh..." she said when he was finished. "I don't think he meant any harm," she suggested.

"That's just it!" Neji said. "He didn't, yet when he realised it did he didn't do anything."

"Neji-kun, Naruto-kun told me that Gaara's never had anyone to care for before. It was only recently that he started caring for his brother and sister and they are the only one's who've ever loved him back," Hinata said.

"What about his father?" Neji asked, never hearing the story before, he was curious.

"His father was the one who put the demon, Shukaku (Shukaku:** Hell yeah go me!** H-R: Not go you! Bad for Gaara.), inside Gaara to make him stronger. He sealed it inside him knowing that when he was born he would kill his own mother, knowing that he would never sleep for the rest of his life, and hating him while viewing him as Sunaga's trump card. Gaara doesn't understand how a father could mean anything to anyone. So it didn't bother him that Hizashi-oji-san was..gone," Hinata said, fumbling with her fingers.

Neji stared at her. Now he felt bad, he realised, for yelling at Gaara when he couldn't understand. Hinata gave him a small smile then picked up the bedding and went back down the hallway.

* * *

**  
Later that night...**

Gaara sat in the room that he was now sharing with Kankurou watching the puppet user sleep. He'd watched other people when they slept, breaking in their houses and watching them, not understanding the process at all. But he had never watched either of his siblings sleep before, though he knew they did. '_Kankurou takes his makeup off when he sleeps…' _Gaara noticed and stated to himself. He watched Kankurou smile in his sleep and desperately wanted to know what it was he was smiling about. Temari was in the room across from the boys, sleeping peacefully, Gaara had already checked.

Gaara sighed and edged closer to his brother and watched him closer. Kankurou was splayed all over the futon, his blanket thrown off of him. Even though his mouth was hanging open with a bit of drool hanging out and snoring loudly, he looked very peaceful to Gaara. He wished he could be that peaceful. More then any thing. With another sigh he stood and went to go watch over Temari. Stopping at the door he went back and fixed Kankurou's blanket, then stepped out.

* * *

Neji opened his eyes for the thousandth time that night. He couldn't sleep. Getting up he put on a robe and stepped out into the hallway to go to the kitchen. On his way he passed the sand nins rooms. Gaara was stepping out of Temari's room, sighing again.

"Gaara!" Neji cried softly. "What are you doing up-oh, never mind." Neji shook his head. "Hungry? I'm going to the kitchen."

Gaara looked up and nodded slightly.

In the kitchen the two boys began raiding the fridge, pulling out their favorite foods and things they couldn't identify. They piled them all on the table in the kitchen and picked at the food. Gaara wasn't sure what most of the stuff on the table was but he could eat anything. He remembered what he and Kankurou always did when they raided the fridge. Neji watched him as he began opening all the cabinets, leaving them all open too he noticed, looking for something. Finally finding what he wanted he climbed up on the counter to reach the large bowl on the top shelf. Gaara returned to the table and began putting a little bit of everything on the table into the bowl. Going back to the fridge he took out several bottles of soda and poured a bit into the bowl. Picking up a spoon, he stirred the mixture together. When he was done it bacame Unaia (H-R's word for an UNidentifiable And Interesting Assortment (I am a master at Unaia)). Neji stared at the stuff trying not to be sick. Gaara put the spoon down and picked the bowl up.

"Ugh! You're not going to eat that are you?!" Neji asked, in realization.

"No," Gaara replied.

Neji gave a sigh of relief.

"I'm going to drink it." And he proceeded to do so.

"Ack!! Stop, you're going to get really sick!!" Neji said grabbing his arm to stop him.

"Actually it tastes pretty good," Gaara said looking down into the bowl. "I'm a good cook!" he stated to no one in particular. He held the bowl out for Neji. "Try it."

Neji looked at the bowl, then at Gaara then back at the bowl. Dare he risk hurting Gaara's feelings and say no? or should he try it, throw up and hurt his feeling that way? Good God, both choices were bad. Swallowing hard he reached over, dipped his finger into the goo and pulled it back to look at in. It smelled funny and made his stomach churn.

Cringing slightly he let a drop drip onto his tongue.

Then he took a lick.

Then he stuck his finger in his mouth.

'_What an interesting flavor....'_

"Do you like it?" Gaara asked, taking the bowl back.

"Kinda…"

Gaara grinned and lifted the bowl to his lips and continued to drink it. Neji's left eye twitched. Any normal person would have asked if he wanted more, to which he would have said yes because the stuff actually tasted pretty good. But Gaara was definitely not any normal person and finished the whole thing without any offer of more at all.

"I don't get it."

Neji looked up at Gaara questionably.

"Temari does this sometimes and it tastes like crap that's sat in the sun for a few days."

'_Ugh, bad mental picture!' _Neji thought to himself.

"How come Kankurou and I do it and it tastes good?" Gaara asked, cleaning the bowl with his finger.

"I do not know," Neji replied, munching on a carrot sticks. "Maybe she's cursed. Or you're just a better cook then she is."

Gaara seemed to remember something. "I can make cookies," he told Neji.

"Yeah?" Neji smiled at him. "I can make popcorn in the microwave," he said with a grin. "What kind of cookies?"

"Chocolate chip, and sugar cookies," Gaara told him. (H-R's speciallty)

"You should make them here sometime," Neji suggested.

"You guys own chocolate chips?" Gaara asked looking around the kitchen. To him the Hyuga's didn't seem like the kind of family to keep a stash of chocolate chips hidden in the cupboard.

"We can get some," Neji assured him.

There was a long pause. "I'm sorry.."

Neji looked up. "What?"

"I'm sorry about earlier," Gaara mumbled.

Neji smiled. "Me too. I shouldn't have gotten so mad."

"Gaara?" the two boys looked up at the doorway where Temari stood rubbing her eyes. "What are you two doing?"

"Munchin'," Gaara replied. (did Gaara just say munchin?!)

Temari gave a tired grin. "Aren't you cold?" she asked rubbing her arms, missing her bed. They shook their heads as she yawned. "Clean up and go back to bed before someone notices you're up, ok?"

"Ok," they replied. They picked up the plates and bowls of food and stuffed them back in the fridge.

Temari waited for them then walk with them down the hallway. Where the hallway branched off Neji bid them good night and went down his hallway (yes he took the round about way to get to the kitchen so he could walk passed Gaara's room and see if he was awake). Temari placed an arm around Gaara's shoulders as they turned down into their hallway and gave him a little squeeze. Gaara looked up at her in surprise. '_What's with all the hugging lately?' _he asked himself.

"Have fun?" she asked.

"We just ate," Gaara said.

"Did you talk?"

"Yeah."

"What'd you talk about?"

"Why are you so nosy?" Gaara demanded.

"Cause I love ya," she said smiling. "And I want to know, what'd you talk about?" she said in a demandingly low voice.

"Nothing, I made Unaia-"

"You ate that stuff in front of Neji!?"

"He tried some," Gaara said defensively.

'_Of course he did,' _Temari said to herself. Out loud she asked. "Did he like it?"

"I guess. Then I said I could make cookies and he said I should make them sometime."

"You should, I like your cookies. They're better then mine!" Gaara gave her a look. "Shut up! I can cook some things!....Like…water..for ramen." Gaara smiled inwardly as they continued to walk down the hall. "You've never come in my room before at night Gaara," she stated.

"You were awake?" Gaara asked wide-eyed.

"Only when you left, you bumped my foot, that's all. Why'd you come in?"

Gaara shrugged. He decided that answering would be a waste of breath and he wouldn't be able to say what he wanted anyway. Temari smiled. She understood. Kankurou stepped out of his room as they walked up.

"Temari have you seen-oh, there you are," Kankurou said sleepily when he saw Gaara. "You know, this feels kinda weird," he said looking around the hallway. "We've never slept in someone elses house before. It feels strange....kinda unnerving."

Temari nodded her agreement, pulling her robe tighter around her. "The rooms are so empty...and quiet. And it's really cold."

Gaara inwardly rolled his eyes. He knew where this was going. In a few minutes they would all agree to sleep in the same room for the one night, but none of them would admitt that they actually wanted to sleep in the same room together like a bunch of two year olds, since it had been an unspoken agreement between them (Gaara wasn't actually involved in this since he didn't care) that they did indeed share a love-hate sibling relationship, more leaning towards the hate in public.

Deciding to skip the whole process together Gaara walked inbetween them back into his and Kankurou's room and pushed the two futons together. Temari and Kankurou followed him shortly and the three climbed into the futons. During these rare happenings, Kankurou was usually in the middle, do to the fact that before he was afraid Gaara would fall asleep, have Shukaku take over him and squish his sister, but this time Gaara got pushed into the middle and the two others 'snuggled' up to him for 'warmth'. All three sighed in unison, then began to drift off into slumber (not Gaara).

* * *

Gaara sat up the next morning feeling very bed lagged, but he didn't know that's what that was. Most people don't know that if you can't sleep, or are unable to sleep (Gaara, H-R and SNG hold up a peace sign) that just laying quietly in the dark will feel like you were sleeping. And Gaara had laid in bed, unable to move because of Kankurou and Temari's 'snuggleness', all night. He yanked at his hair that had fallen in his face. He would need to cut it soon.

"GAARA TEMARI KANKUROU WAKE UP!!!!!"

Temari and Kankurou jumped at the sudden waking and looked sleepily at the door. Gaara trying to cover his reaction, but it didn't work, he panted heavily and clutched his racing heart.

"....Naruto....?" Temari asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"

The enthusiastic fox-nin, Kiba and Neji stood in the door way grinning from ear to ear. "Kiba and I went over your house, but you weren't there, so we came over here," Naruto explained. "Come on! Get up! Get dressed lets go!!"

"Why?" Kankurou asked, the three of them not moving.

"Look outside!!" Kiba said as loud as Naruto, pointing to the window. When he saw that the sand nins were taking their time getting untangled and completely awake, he growl. How could they not be excited? Stalking across the room and picked Kankurou and Gaara out of bed and dragged them to the window. "LOOK!!"

Sleepy glance.

Blink Blink.

Stare.

"What the hell is all that stuff?" Gaara asked staring out the window.

"It's snow!!" Naruto shouted in their ears.

"Ok, one: don't ever do that again," Kankurou said. "Two: it's seven o'clock in the morning. Three: even if I was awake enough to be excited, none of us have clothes to--"

"We got you some, Tsunade sent them," Neji said tossing a pile of clothes onto the futon next to Temari who'd gone back to sleep.

"We'll wait outside! Hurry up!" Naruto and Kiba ran out of the house to where Akamaru waited. The Hyuga's rule of thumb: No dogs in the house, was set when Kiba, Akamaru and Shino first came to Hinata's house and the ninja dog accidently destroyed half the main hall in his attempts to get the harmless cricket that had entered the house.

Hinata stepped into the room, wrapped in an extra robe to see what was going on. She helped Neji sort through the clothes, setting them in neat piles for each sand nin.

"Why did she get us so many?" Gaara asked sitting on the other side of the piles.

"To stay warm," Hinata said smiling.

"...... You mean I have to wear all of them?!"

"Yeah...." Hinata and Neji looked at each other then down at the clothes. It wasn't that much. Jeans, snowpants, a turtle neck, a hoody, jacket, and boots, gloves and scarf. They didn't tell them, but Tsuande had thought of getting them more, just in case, but Naruto had talked her out of it.

"I'm not wearing all that," Gaara stated, crossing his arms.

"Gaara, comm'ere a sec," Kankurou beckoned him back to the window. When he stood in front of it, he threw it open letting a blast of freezing air and snow in.

"CLOSE THAT WINDOW!!!" Temari shouted pulling the blankets over her tighter.

Kankurou did so and looked at Gaara, who moved back and took his clothes from Hinata. "How do I put these on?" he asked.

* * *

"You can not be serious."

"Hurry up, Naruto and Kiba are waiting," Neji said, slipping his snow boots on.

"But--"

"Lets go," Neji tied his scarf then went over to the door.

"Neji!!"

Neji turned and looked back at Gaara. "Yeah?"

"I can't_ move_." Gaara glared at him reproachfully from behind the coat, scarf and hat. He was so bundled up that he found he couldn't walk at all.(H-R hates snow pants and all that stuff her mom makes her wear. She doesn't even need it. She came go out in snow wearing shorts and flipflops and she'd be good SNG: It's true.)

Kankurou came down the hall way, dressed for snow and laughed when he saw Gaara.

"Shut up!"

"Ah..lets see..." Kankurou helped him loosen the clothes a bit so he was able to move. "Better?"

"..." Gaara stared straight ahead at nothing.

"Alright lets go!" All three trudged out the door.

And were imediately plummeled by snow balls. Well, Kankurou and Neji were plummeled by snowballs, Gaara stared at a wall of sand for moment then glanced around it.

"Gaara, that's cheating!" Naruto called from behind the tree.

Gaara however wasn't paying any attention. He gave the snow a little tap with his boot, then a tiny kick. Kankurou and Neji watched him and looked at each other, trying not to laugh. The redhead reached out an picked some snow off the bushes next to the front door. Crushing it between his gloved finger he frowned, not quite understanding what it was. Kankurou began to loose patience.

SHOVE!!

Gaara: O.o

To compensate for Kankurou pushing him in, Neji gave Kankurou a push, knocking him into the deep snow next to the hole where Gaara disappeared. Neji waddled through the snow to Gaara's hole, where the sand nin lay staring up at the sky that was still dumping snow.

"You ok?" Neji asked.

"What is this stuff?" Gaara asked not moving (actually he couldn't move, his clothes were still too bundled up).

"It's snow," Neji answered, holding a hand out. Gaara took the hand and Neji hauled him up. "You play in it. It's fun."

The sand caught another volley of snow balls that came their way. Neji grabbed Gaara and dragged him behind a tree. Another snowball came their way, but this time Gaara caught it with his hand.

"What's this?" he asked looking at it.

"A snowball," Neji answered, deciding that a shocked reaction was getting old. "Here watch."

Gaara watched him roll a hand full of snow into a ball, then chuck it in Kiba and Naruto direction, clobering Kiba as the dog nin lifted his head up. Neji snickered evily then began making more. Gaara sat and watched him then started making some too. When they had a decent pile they stuffed them in their pockets and started to creep up on the two other nins. However, the 'two other nins' were also doing the same thing, advancing with the stealth of lots of training. Both groups noticed what the other was doing at the same time, so they stepped out into the clearing around the Hyuga house and prepared to start an all out war.

Kankurou finally got himself free and sat up, just in time to see hundreds of snow ball flying towards him in ever direction.

* * *

All Done this one. (does a happy dance) almost christmas almost christmas 


	11. Skating no Jutsu

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 11: Skating no Jutsu

* * *

Blooper from last chapter: (SNG's idea)

Kankurou finally pulled himself out of the hole and looked around, just in time to see thousands of snow balls flying towards him in every direction. Kankurou clasped his hands together like he was going to pray.

"Save me, Bug! Save me!!"

(That was for those of you who read Three Again For those of you who haven't and didn't get it, read Three Again and find out)

* * *

No one quite knew who had won the snowball fight, only that Kankurou lost. Naruto and Kiba were preaching that they won, and Neji and Gaara didn't really care. They went back inside and removed a layer of clothes. Hinata dried their coats, gloves, hats and scarves for them, then all six went back outside to walk into the village. Naruto took them to the Raman Stand and each enjoyed a few bowls of the steaming noddles and meat. They continued on and saw the Yamanaka Flower shop was getting a make over.

Since flowers were scarce in the winter, the Yamanaka's instead sold Christmas decorations. They went in to say hi and to look around. Sakura and Lee were helping Ino set up the shop and they greeted them excitedly, very much in the christmas spirit. Lee got down from the ladder when he was finished putting up the gardlands that was bordering the ceiling.

"What is that ridiculous thing on your head?" Gaara asked the boy.

"Hm? This?" Lee touched the Santa hat Sakura had found. "It's a hat."

"It looks funny."

Lee shrugged and smiled. Then picked up another box of goods and began shelving them. Gaara watched him until he grew bored and went over where Neji and Hinata were looking at ordiments with Ino.

"What do you think Gaara?" Hinata asked, she and Ino holding up two boxes of ordiments. "This one or this one?"

"What are they for?" Gaara asked.

"The christmas tree at our house," Hinata said.

"What's a christmas tree?"

Hinata and Ino dropped the boxes, which Neji quickly caught. Gaara instantly got the feeling that he said something wrong again. Before they could say anything, Sakura came by and dragged him away. Although this happening is not in the fanfic because H-R is absent minded and forgot, Tsunade is training Sakura along with Gaara so the two are 'close' friends (meaning Gaara stands her company) now.

"Look, look!" Sakura said pulling him over to a miniature ice rink with little people on it. "Watch!" she pushed the ON button and the little people started to move, in dancing motions, around the rink, and the little box inside began playing 'Here We Come a Wassling'.

Gaara, slightly interested, leaned down to look at it. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's like a music box," she told him.

"What are they doing?" he asked pointing to the people.

"They're ice skating," Sakura explained. "You put on special shoes and slide around on ice. It's a lot of fun."

"Do you know how to ice skate?"

"Oh, yeah, I love to ice skate," Sakura told him. "I could teach you if you want me to. The rink opened last night."

"What's christmas?" Gaara asked, poking at the skating people.

"It's a holiday in the winter," Sakura explain, turning the ice rink one off and starting a different one. "It's when we celebrate with family and friends. Most people give gifts on christmas." Gaara made an 'oh' sound and they watched the new music box for a while. "Gaara?"

"You know Neji likes you?" she asked, softly.

"Temari and Kankurou told me," Gaara said, again avoiding the whole ghost thing. He had been getting bad reactions from it.

"Do you like him back?"

"I don't really know how to 'like some one'," Gaara said after a few minutes of thinking. "I don't really understand how Neji likes me. I enjoy Naruto's company, but this seems different. Everyone's making a big deal about it."

Sakura thought for a moment. "I like Lee-san, and Temari likes Shikamaru like Neji likes you," she said.

Gaara thought about this for a while. He was having a mental image of Temari and Shikamaru snuggling on the sofa and then they were replaced by him and Neji. Pause. Gaara thought about that for a while. And he actually began to understand. His mind suddenly went back to his original questions.

"Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"What's a christmas tree?"

"A pine tree that you put the christmas gifts under," she said. "My family is getting ours tonight."

Ino suddenly came up and stood next to Sakura. "You don't know what a christmas tree is?" she asked in that prepy 'are-you-stupid-or-something' voice.

Sakura glared at her and Gaara replied, "It's a pine tree that you put christmas gifts under."

"Ino, just bug off! Leave Gaara alone!" Sakura said making a shooing motion.

"Don't tell me what to do, Miss. Wide forehead," Ino shot back. "This is my store and I can kick you out if I want."

"Fine, then I'll leave, and you can set all this up by yourself," Sakura said taking Gaara's hand and dragging him away again. "Lee-san! We're leaving!"

"Um..Ok, Sakura-san," Lee followed her outside, putting his coat back on. The other five followed them out and they walked down the snowy streets together, Sakura tugging on Lee and Gaara's arms.

"Oi! Where we going?" Kankurou called from behind them

"Ice skating!" Sakura called back. She paused for a minute to looked at Neji's jealous face that was staring at the place where her hand and Gaara's connected. "We're going to teach you two how to ice skate."

"Ok," Kankurou shoved his hands back into his pockets.

* * *

"Eight please," Sakura said to the boy a the counter. He gave her eight wrist bands and a ticket to give the guys who gave out skates. She handed one to each person then they went in to get their skates. They went into the area where you put your skates on and Sakura gave Neji a push towards Gaara. "Neji, you help Gaara," she ordered. "Lee-san and I will help Kankurou."

Kankurou grinned at her. "Slick." he muttered.

"Thank you," she replied putting her skates on.

* * *

"I don't think I want to do this..." Gaara said holding onto the wall of the rink like it was the thing that was between him and certain death.

"It's easy, once you get the hang of it," Neji assured him skating around him.

"Yeah, Gaara, it's easy!" Kankurou called skating passed them. (Kankurou found something he was good at!!!) (SNG: On the rink for five minutes, and suddenly, a pro... This is so brother-grudge stuff..)

"Shut up!" Gaara called after his brother.

"Neji! Come here!" Naruto and Kiba called from the other side of the rink.

Neji glanced at Gaara then, deciding that the sand nin was safer on the wall then on the rink, he skated over to the two boys. Gaara watched them for a second then began concentrating on his hold on the wall.

He glanced up in time to see a grinning blur rushing up to him , but had no time to react as Kankurou grabbed him and dragged him into the flow in the rink. Realizing that he was no longer within reach of the lovely wall, Gaara panicked and grabbed Kankurou, causing them both to fall to the ground (ice). Kankurou laughed however and sat up to watch Gaara.

"I'm leaving!" Gaara said trying to stand up, but falling again.

"Aw, come on, Gaara!" Kankurou said grinning from ear to ear.

"No!" he tried again and failed again.

"Please? It really is fun when you give it a try," Kankurou insisted.

"Like hell it's fun!" Gaara growled, resorting to crawling back to the wall.

Sakura skated up to him and knelt next to him. He looked up at her and she looked down on him, both with expressionless faces. Gaara broke the silence first.

"What?"

"You're not going to let your brother best you in something like this are you?" Sakura asked.

"I don't really care," Gaara replied. And Sakura realized that he really didn't care. (SNG: Too bad, Kan-kun.. you finally got something on him, but... yeah, hes Gaara...)

"Aw, come on," she pleaded. She held out her hand for him to take. Gaara hesitated then took her hand. She helped him upTimes New Roman

and he held onto her for dear life. "Don't put your feet together and stand up straight," Sakura odered. Gaara stared to do so when Naruto and kiba zoomed by and grabbed both his arms.

Sakura stared at the empty space that had been Gaara then turned to look at the trio skate away. Gaara, dissmissing what ever was left of his dignity, screamed at the top of his lungs in terror. The other five stared after them with various reactions. Kankurou laughed so hard he started crying. Hinata was torn between amusement and pity for the sand nin. Lee was also trying not to laugh, because Sakura looked pissed and Neji clamped his hand over his face.

"Oh, yeah, that's gonna help him like ice skating more," Neji mumbled. As they came around again, passing Neji, the Hyuga grabbed the back of Gaara's coat pulling him out of the loud leaf nins' grasps. The two turned to protest, but at the Hyuga's death glare that would put Orochimaru in tears, they left it alone. Neji looked down at Gaara who was glomping onto his leg. "Are you sure you don't want to learn?" the Hyuga asked.

Gaara made an incohirant noise, that could have been a yes or a no.

"If you do, I'll treat you to anything you want," Neji said, his leg starting to go numb from lack of blood.

"Gaara are you scared?" Kankurou asked.

"No!" Gaara said glaring at Kankurou.

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

Kankurou made a cry baby face. "Scary-cat! Your scared of a little ice?"

"No I'm not!" Gaara's face turned red.

"Gaawa's scarwed of a widdle ice?" Kankurou taunted. _'Good god, I'm gonna die...'_

Gaara's face was now the same color of his hair and he grabbed the closest thing he could reach, which happened to be Lee, (Neji was his support) and chucked it at Kankurou. Kankurou and Lee sailed across the ice rink, knocking several innocent people to te ground, and slid into the wall.

Gaara used Neji as a support to shakingly stand and ordered the Hyuga to teach him to skate.

* * *

By two thirty everyone was complaining of hungry stomachs and they agreed to get lunch. Gaara was quite proud of himself and boasted to Kankurou how he could now skate better then Kankurou. His brother didn't agrue, he just smiled and let Gaara do his happy boasting.

* * *

"Someone fixed our heater," Temari told them when they happened to meet on the street on their walking from lunch. She was shopping with Shikamaru, who found that shopping with Temari wasn't as bad as shopping with Ino, since she just wanted to get christmas decorations. Temari handed the bags of decorations to Kankurou. "You did say you wanted to do them," she told him, walking away. (you don't have to go back looking for where this conversation took place, I didn't write it. They talked about it the night before)

"I know! You don't have to remind me!" Kankurou shouted back at her.

The eight nins said their farewells and merry christmas's and went their separate ways. Gaara, Neji and Kankurou went back to the Sand House so Kankurou could decorate the outside of the house. Sakura and Lee went to (H-R sits back and thinks for a while) what ever they felt like doing. Kiba saw Shino and went to hang out with his team mate. Naruto went home with Hinata to meet her dad which he had failed to do yet.

* * *

Sumon sumon

I've been having technical difficulties, but I've fixed them. Sort of...

Shukaku: **WE WENT THROUGH A LOT OF TROUBLE FOR YOU GUYS!! AND IF DON'T APPRICIATE IT I'LL--**

Can it dude. It wasn't that much of a big deal...


	12. How to Put up Xmas Decor, Kankurou Style

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 12- How To Put up Xmas Decor, Kankurou Style

* * *

_'Ha! What? Does Temari think I'm stupid?!'_ Kankurou mused to himself. _'Doesn't think I can put up decoration my self?'_ ......."BITE ME, SHE-DEVIL!!!!!"

"Are you sure you don't want help?" Neji called from where he and Gaara sat on the back-porch-slash-dock that went out over part of the lake.

"NO!! SHUT UP! I'M CONCENTRATING!!!"

"....ok...."

Gaara rolled his eyes as Kankurou slowly inched across the roof of the house, wonder how long it would take the puppeteer to realize he left all the lights he was putting up on the deck next to him and Neji. Kankurou got to the middle of the roof, sat up, and realized just that.

"Damnit...." he muttered. He sat and thought for a while. Kankurou knew that since he had said he didn't want help, Gaara wouldn't help him now even if he asked. He suddenly remembered a certain time he was training without Neji during the time Gaara was gone with Tsunade. he had been experimenting with the Kiokubun'ya and he found a very interesting ability he had.

Concentrating, he focused his chakra to his eyes and opened his bloodlimit. Looking down at the two talking boys on the deck he focused on the bag at Gaara's foot. There were traces of chakra on it. Why? Because, one: Temari had touched it with her bare hands, leaving a trace behind, and two: it was made of paper and he learned that trees give off chakra too. He pulled the chakra off the bag and formed it into the thinest strand he could from that distance and attached it to his finger tips. Just like during the training when he had pulled chakra off a tree branch, the chakra harded and became a strong strand of wire like substance attached to his fingers. Laughing triumphantly to himself, he pulled the bag up to where he was.

* * *

**Mean while....**

"I don't believe you," Gaara said, crossing his arms and looking at the amused Neji suspisiously.

Neji laughed. "I swear I'm telling the truth!" he insisted.

"There's a man that brings everyone around the world presents on a flying sled?" Gaara asked.

"Yes, Santa Clause," Neji decided earlier that he wouldn't freak out everytime Gaara didn't know something that was a given to all others, such as Christmas and Santa Clause (and birthdays, but they haven't gotten that far yet). He himself didn't believe in Santa Clause, but he knew that no life was complete unless you believe in santa clause at least once in your life.

"How does he get into the houses?"

"Through the chiminey."

"What if you don't have a chiminey?"

"Then he comes through the air vents."

"What if you don't--"

"He'll find a way."

Gaara sat back and thought. "I'll see him when he comes then," he decided.

"You can't!" Neji said. "If you stay up and see him he wont leave you presents. You have to be asleep."

"......no wonder I never got a present..." Gaara mused, not in a 'oh-I-feel-sorry-for-myself' way, but a 'that-would-explain-some-things,-who-knew?' kind of way.

_'Shit...'_ "Heh heh... maybe he'll come any way, he leaves presents for everyone in Konoha," Neji said.

"But, Sakura said people give gifts on Christmas, not 'Santa Clause'," Gaara argued.

"Oh, people give gift too, not just Santa. It's to show someone how much you love or appriciate them," Neji explain.

Gaara leaned back on the bench they were sitting on and happened to glance up at the roof. He made a choking sound that could have been a laugh, causing Neji to look up as well.

STARE.

Snicker...

Gaara and Neji exchanged a glance, then both started laughing.

"SHUT UP!!! I'M JUST HAVING TECHINCAL DIFFICULTIES!!!!" Kankurou shouted down at them from where he hung by a bunch of strands of lights off the side of the house. He began trying to untangle himself. Quite unsuccessfully.

**Ten minutes later...**

"(sniff sniff).. Gaara?..." Kankurou whined. "Help me please!"

Using sand, Gaara lifted himself up to Kankurou and untangled him. Kankurou gingerly sat on the poof of sand too and looked up to better decifer what he should do. Gaara however, was studying the light strands with a slight interest. He leaned over the poof to look down at Neji who had gotten up and was standing underneath them.

"Neji, what's this?" he called down.

"Christmas lights!" Neji called back. "It's decoration!" Finally realizing that Gaara was going to stay up there and that the thought of asking him if he wanted help getting up himself hadn't crossed the sand-nin's mind, Neji focused his chakra and walked up the side of the house.

They spent half the afternoon helping Kankurou put the lights on the house. When they were done, they stood back on the deck and surveyed their work. Quite proudly, in fact. Actually, Gaara still didn't see the point, but hey, shiny stuff all over the house. Kankurou suddenly glanced at the two boys in suspision.

"What are you two doing?!" he demanded loudly, making them jump. "Didn't I tell you I didn't want your help?! Jeez....." he stomped away with the rest of the decorations.

Gaara and Neji exchanged a look.

"Neji-nii-san!" Hinata called as she and Naruto entered the yard and stepped onto the dock. "Gaara-kun!"

"Hello, Hinata-sama," Neji said as he and Gaara trudged through the layer of snow on te ock to greet them.

"Ano sa, ano sa, Gaara, Tsunade-obaachan wants you to meet her and Sakura-chan for 'a bit'," Naruto told his friend.

Gaara grumbled as he trudged back inside with Neji behind him. He went up to his room and slammed the door in Neji's face. Neji stared at the door then watched as Gaara opened it two seconds later for him to come in.

Neji sat on Gaara's bed that had yet to be used in anyway shape or form as Gaara went into his closet and changed into his ninja clothes. He picked up the kunai bag (why he needed it, he didn't know, but Tsunade wanted him to have it anyway) followed Neji back down stairs. While Neji headed for the door, Gaara stopped at the kitchen and peeked in, hoping Temari wasn't there. She wasn't, she was to busy with Shikamaru at the mall for time in the kitchen. Gaara went in and grabbed random things to eat on the way.

Naruto and Hinata were in the front yard watching Kankurou put up decorations. Every once and a while they tried to give some advise only to be shot down with a death glare. Naruto called goodbye to the two boys as they left then turned back to Kankurou who was trying to put up one of those white trees with lights on them.

"Um..Kankurou...?" Hinata spoke up shyly.

"WHAT?!!?"

Hinata gulped then smiled slightly. "Um, did you know that the decorations come with direction on how to put them up?"

"Goddamnit!" Kankurou mumble-grumbled to himself, going through the box for the directions as Naruto busted out laughing. Kankurou found the directions, skimmed it, then threw it away. "To complicated," he stated then returned to doing it his way.

"But--"

Kankurou turned and glared at them. "There's ramen in the kitchen in the far right cabinet, there is also lots of other food and there's movies. Go have fun," he told them.

"Uh...heh ok," they said and went into the house, leaving the murderous looking sand nin to his own toys.

* * *

Completely naive to the happenings at the sand house, Kiba stopped by with Akamaru...and saw the decorations.

Now, in Naruto, the one who's labeled as being loud and obnoxious is always Naruto himself, however, if you think about it, the true, truly obnoxious character in Naruto is actually Kiba and when he saw the decorations that Kankurou had put up, you know he couldn't pass up the chance to say something smart. So he did.

"Dude are you blind and on crack? Those decorations look horrible!" the dog-nin said, pointing and laughing.

Ten minutes later found Akamaru hiding inside the mailbox and Kiba strung by the christmas decoration, stuck to a tree while Kankurou stormed inside. _'Stupid decorations....they can put themselves up for all I care!!'_


	13. Christmas

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 13: Christmas

I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi guys! did ya miss me?!

Shukaku: **Dude, their probably waiting with axes and pitch fork cause you took so long.**

O.o WHAT?! I sorry!!!

* * *

Tsunade and Sakura looked up when Gaara and Neji entered Tsunade's office together. Both boys stopped short at their very serious expressions. Tsunade politely asked neji to leave since they had business as a team and Neji said good bye and left, leaving Gaara feeling very much alone. What the hell was wrong? 

"I've asked you both to come here because we have a very important mission we have to accomplish," Tsunade said. "I've already informed Sakura of it and I now need to tell you."

Gaara crossed his arms and raised a non existent eye brow. "...?..."

"We need to--

* * *

Temari and Shikamaru came home a few hours later and stared at the front yard and house. Temari's mouth dropped open and Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. Temari then darted into the house and ran into the kitchen. 

"Kankurou!!!" she screeched.

Kankurou who had been sitting at the kitchen table, chilling with Kiba, Akamaru, Hinata and Naruto jumped. "What?"

Temari glomped him. "Good job!! I'm impressed!"

"Eh?"

"The decorations. They look great!" she smiled widely and skipped over to the phone. "I was gonna cook tonight, but because you worked so hard, I'll order something ok?"

".....?....ok," Kankurou said. He could've sworn he had given up on the decorations. He glanced over at Hinata and Naruto who instantly looked away. _'Oh,'_ He mouthed 'thanks' to them and they smiled.

Temari placed the order and turned back to them. She looked around then frown. "Where's Gaara?"

"Tsunade-sama asked to see him," Hinata told her. "He and Neji-nii-san left a while ago."

"What kind of mission would someone go on a week and a half before Christmas?" Kankurou mused to himself.

* * *

"Hurry up Gaara! You're so slow!" Sakura called back to the sand nin, who trudged behind her and the Teacher-from-hell. 

Gaara didn't reply. What kind of stupid mission was this? And why did they have to go to another village in the Fire country?

"Pst!" Gaara looked at Sakura who jumped to his side. "What are you getting for everyone?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "We're Christmas shopping, and you don't know what your getting?"

"I've never done this before," Gaara told her. "Besides," he added, putting on a rare pout-like expression, "how is shopping qualified as training?"

"Hm? Tsunade-sama was just kidding," Sakura said. Gaara did the anime crash in the form of tripping on nothing and falling face first on a pile of sand. Sakura laughed as Tsuande turned and called for them to hurry up.

Gaara groaned. This was worse then the last mission he went on with Tsunade.

* * *

Neji wandered around Konoha after he left the Hokage building. Having nothing to do and nothing that he had to do, he was feeling quite bored. He couldn't think of anything to do so he started home. 

"HEY NEJI!!"

Neji clamped his mouth shut as hard as he could to keep from screeching aloud. What was with people and sneaking up on him lately? When he finally had composed himself, he turned to see Kankurou standing behind him.

"...hi Kankurou," Neji replied.

"Temari ordered dinner, you want to eat with us?" the puppet-user asked. With a sly grin he added, "I mean, I know how you _love_ to eat at our house."

Neji glared at him. "Fine," he replied following his friend.

Kankurou suddenly looked around. "Where's Gaara?"

"Tsuande-sama had a mission for him and Sakura to go on," Neji explained.

"Oh, ok,"Kankurou replied.

* * *

The six shinobi sat around eating the many boxes of pizza's Temari ordered, talking about random things that had no meaning what so ever. Neji was quite grateful that Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba were there. He had bad experiences eating with the older sand nins. 

Temari had zoned out long ago and was replaying random happenings in her life.

**Flashback**

"_Gaara, what's that bandage around your head for?" she asked her brother on their way to Fudruckers the night Gaara came back. Gaara had taken his hat off to push his bangs off his face and she noticed them._

_Gaara replaced the hat and grinned. "Nothing," was his reply._

**End Flashback**

'_Come to think of it,'_ she mused to herself._ 'Gaara's been wearing a hat ever since he came back...'_ She voiced her thought aloud. "Has anyone else noticed that Gaara's been wearing a hat ever since he got home?"

There was a pause as everyone stopped to think. Then there was a general nod.

Neji took a sip of his drink. "It's for a new jutsu of his," the Hyuga explained. "His hat covers bandages that are helping it settle for a few weeks before he can take them off. Fuse with his chakra so to speak."

"And you know this how..?" Kiba asked.

Temari, Kankurou, and Hinata exchanged knowing looks.

"Gaara told him, duh," Naruto said to Kiba. Even he wasn't that stupid.

Kiba glared at him.

"What kind of new jutsu?" Kankurou asked taking a bite of pizza.

"Its one that Tsunade-sama taught him, one of her special ones," Neji explained.

Naruto blinked his mouth full of pizza. He remembered Jiraiya telling him about how Tsunade had defeated Orochimaru long ago when they first fought and Tsunade excepted being Hokage. She had been out of chakra and had used some special jutsu that gave her an incredible boost of strength. "Oh..." he said slowly. How he remembered that he had no idea.

"You know what it is?" Temari asked him.

"I've never seen it, but Jiraiya told me about it," Naruto explained.

"Oh," came the general response.

* * *

"You know...I don't really mind going shopping," Gaara mumbled to Sakura. "Actually I like shopping. But I do. Not. Like. Carrying. Other. Peoples. BAGS!!!" 

Sakura giggled and turned to him. "But don't you want to be the gentleman?" she asked, with that cutesy, girly smile that he had come to hate.

"No."

"Think of it as training, Gaara, like on our last mission," Tsuande said from where she was looking in a store window.

"That wasn't training!" Gaara practically screeched. "That was you being lazy!"

Sakura had learned to ignore the sand-nins random outbursts long ago. "So...?" she asked slyly. "What are you gettin' for Ne-ji?"

"..Why-ee...?" Gaara asked imitating her.

"Well, you guys are like, going out or something, aren't you?" Sakura asked, amazed at how much she sounded like Ino sometimes.

"...so?"

"Well, you got to get him something special!" she cried. "Something _you_ think is special, so don't ask me what to get him!"

"Who?" Tsuande asked slowing down to their pace.

"Neji," Sakura replied before Gaara could say no one.

Tsunade gave him a knowing look that made Gaara feel uncomfortable. _'How the hell does she find these things out?!'_

**She's a devil incarnate, I swear!**

Gaara blinked. That was a voice he hadn't heard in a while. _'She can be nice sometimes....not often but..'_

**Humph!** Shukaku made a noise then went back into ponder mode which he did quite often since he really had nothing to do.** Have you decided?**

'_....?...decided what?'_ Gaara asked as Tsunade and Sakura saw something pretty and ran over to look at it.

**About the Kyokubunya.**

'_What about it?'_

**.......I told you a while ago that Sunaga's Kekkei Genkai is a special bloodline limit that specializes in a specific field depending on the person using it. You're sister's chosen to specialize in wind. You weren't paying attention, but Kankurou's chosen to stay in his field of work.**

'_Puppets?'_

**Chakra strings. He's learned to pull chakra off objects and turn them into strings that he can control. **Shukaku paused as if waiting.** What are you going to specialize in? Talking to ghosts will not get you far in a shinobi life. Kyokubunya is almost limitless with choices, but once you chose it's your specialty only.**

'_You can't have more then one?'_

**Sometimes the field you chose can aid in other fields and give you a slight perspective of another field. So you should chose carefully and–**

"Gaara! Look at this!" Sakura called excitedly, interrupting the demon's explanation.

Gaara dropped his mental conversation and went over to the stand she was looking in. It was a glass blowing shop and the man inside was placing raw glass into the furnace to melt it down. Another man was forming by hand already molten glass into a glass cup.

"Isn't it cool?"

Gaara nodded to please her (aka make her shut up). His thought went back to the 'mission' they were on. He also didn't know what he was getting Temari and Kankurou. He glanced over at a shelf of already made items and saw that they made weapons of many different sorts.

(Ding Light bulb)

"Come on, let's get something to eat," Sakura said.

"I'll be there in a minute," Gaara told her as she ran off then he turned to talk to the man at the furnace.

* * *

Gaara came home a little while later just as Kiba was leaving. Kiba said hi and goodbye, then left. He received a piercingly loud hello from Naruto as he entered the kitchen. 

"How was it Gaara?" Temari asked throwing away the empty pizza boxes.

"Stupid," Gaara replied taking a piece from one of the full boxes.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the bags he had in one hand.

Gaara looked down at them then back up at her. "Nothing," he replied.

"Oh! What is it?" Kankurou asked, curious, straining to look in the bags.

"None of your business," Gaara replied. He took another piece then went up to his room.

Temari and Kankurou exchanged glances. And they made an unconscious, sibling agreement: They would find out what was in those bags no matter what.

Neji looked at them and rolled his eyes. He followed Gaara's path up the stairs and knocked on his door. Gaara opened it, saw him and shut it again. Neji looked at the door with an expression that read: _'what the hell? Is this going to happen ever time I come over?'_. He thought of using the Byakugan to look into the room and see what he was doing but decided against it. Gaara opened the door for him to come it.

Neji walked in and sat on Gaara's bed, scanning the room for any evidence of the sand nin's previous movements. No such luck. Gaara was good at hiding stuff. He thought again about using th Byakugan, but that was sneaky. And sneaky was beneath Hyuga Neji.

Gaara sat down next to him and took his hat off, revealing the bandages beneath. He touched them gingerly, then looked at the roll of fresh bandages in his hand.

"Neji?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how to put these on right, don't you?" Gaara asked holding up the roll.

"Yeah, turn around," Neji told him taking the roll. Gaara turned his back to him and Neji began removing the old one to put the new ones on.

* * *

"What do you think they're doing up there?" Kankurou pondered to no one in particular. 

Hinata and Temari unconsciously glanced at each other and their faces exploded into blush. Kankurou gave them a disgusted look.

"Ew. Perverts."

"Shut up! It was a perverted question!" Temari retorted.

"Neji-nii-san wouldn't do something like...._that_," Hinata mumbled.

"We got to get them more together then this!!" Temari mumbled aloud to her evil thoughts. "Take the next step, dammit!!"

Kankurou and Hinata backed away,

Naruto stared. "What?!"

"Neji-nii-san and Gaara are sort of in love," Hinata said automatically.

Naruto's jaw hit the table. "WHAT?!?!"

Hinata's hand flew to her mouth. "Did I say that out loud? I'm sorry!"

Naruto however, recovered quickly and leaned back. "I suspected as much," he said knowingly, since he realized that everyone else in the room already knew and didn't want to be left out.

'_Sure you did...'_ Temari and Kankurou thought to themselves.

* * *

Neji finished wrapping Gaara's bandages. Stretching he turned around and laid down on the bed behind Gaara. He got comfortable and relaxed. 

"Wow....your bed is _really_ comfortable," Neji commented. He closed his eyes, finding himself quite willing to take a nap. A light weight rested on his stomach. Gaara had leaned back, using his stomach as a pillow, with his feet hanging over the edge.

"I never noticed," Gaara said, closing his eyes like he would go to sleep.

Neji stared. He felt his heart going all a flutter. Gaara look so different when he look like he was sleeping! Smiling contently, Neji decided that he like the idea of a nap. He reached down and gently scratched the insomniac's head until he himself fell asleep.

Shukaku stared at Neji through Gaara's psychic or what ever. **Good god.....** he muttered to himself.

* * *

Temari and Kankurou sat at the kitchen table long after Naruto and Hinata left, waiting for Neji and Gaara to come down. By long time I mean like three hours. Kankurou's innocent question was now making them both jittery. What _were_ they doing up there?! 

Temari finally lost patience and crept up the stairs to her younger brother's room. She pressed her ear against the door and listened. No sound came from inside. As gently and quietly as she could she opened the door and peeked in.

Neji was still sleeping soundly on Gaara's bed with a light blanket. Gaara was still using his stomach as a pillow, however he had gotten up to get a book and Kankurou's headphone's. A smile tugged at her lips. Their family had never really celebrated Christmas before. But with it only two days away, she was really looking forward to it.

* * *

**Skip two days cause I'm lazy.**

**No wait skip to Christmas eve, thats one day**

Gaara opened the door to his room quietly so as not to wake his sleeping siblings. Bored of the puzzle he was trying to figure out, he went downstairs to get something to eat. His barefeet padded softly across the hardwood floors and stairs to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and examined it's contents. As he pulled out the things needed to make four or five sandwiches, he glanced up at the calander on the wall. Tomorrow was Christmas day. Temari had gone to great pains to circle, star, heart, smiley face, christmas tree, wreath and bell Christmas day. Gaara shook his head and made his sandwiches. _'My family is so weird...'_ he thought to herself.

His thoughts were interrupted by a little thunk that came from the roof. It was so light that Gaara wouldn't have noticed it (well, Shukaku did say "**what was that**?", but Gaara ignored him), except that he heard bells with it as well. Then he heard a small sound coming from the living room. He peeked into the living room, four sandwiches in one hand and the fifth dangling out of his mouth, the other hand had a can of soda. The noise was coming from the fireplace that they never used before.

**Flashback**

_"Yes, Santa Clause," Neji said. "He comes in through the chimney."_

_Gaara sat back and thought. "I'll see him when he comes then," he decided._

_"You can't!" Neji said. "If you stay up and see him he wont leave you presents. You have to be asleep."_

**End Flashback**

Gaara's mouth dropped open, letting his snack fall from it. Holy shit, he was telling the truth! Gaara snatched up the sandwich before it his the ground and ran up the stairs.

He stopped half way and sat down to watch. Curiosity is a bad habit. Actually he wasn't even quite sure it was Santa Claus. It could be a random squirrel that got.....stuck. Or...a ...bird...or something....

There was a thump as whatever was coming down the chimney found ground again. Gaara's eyes widened as a large man dressed in red pulled himself and a large bag out of the chimney. The man sighed and opened the bag.

**Flashback**

"_If you stay up and see him, he wont leave you presents. You have to be asleep."_

**End Flashback**

Gaara jumped up and ran into his room and shut the door. He dove headfirst onto the bed and under the covers. He knew he was acting spastic, but didn't really care at the moment.

'_I'm asleep!! I'm asleep!! I'm asleep!!'_ Gaara told himself over and over.

Shukaku started paying close attention then realized that he was only pretending to sleep. **You are one sadistic little bastard, you know that don't you?!**

Gaara ignored him, pretending to sleep was taking all his concentration.

* * *

'Santa Claus' chuckled when Gaara ran up to his room. He slipped the beard down, showing a kind smile. Akamichi-san placed the presents down in their piles then crept up the stairs. 

Neji had come to him earlier and explained the situation. Akamichi-san readily agreed, not to play a prank on the little sand-nin, but because he agreed: Everyone should believe in Santa Claus at least once in their life.

He opened Gaara's door and looked in. Gaara froze with the covers pulled over his head. Akamichi-san smiled again and fixed his beard back on. He placed an envelope on the bed next to him with a little candy cane taped to it. He patted Gaara's back with a audible chuckle then went back down stairs. However, this time he went through the front door. He climbed up on to the roof and made it sound like he had gotten out of the chimney. He jingled his bells then climbed back off.

Gaara remained motionless under the covers, shaking as if he had just flirted with death.

'_Oh, my god....'_

**Oh, _my_ god! He exists!!** Shukaku said shaking. His whole world of belief just crashed down in the form of a fat red man. (SNG: what? H-R: it was the first thing that came to mind).

Two hours later, when Gaara established that Santa was not coming back and it was safe to be awake, he peeked out of the covers, still munching on the fifth sandwich. He finished it then stuffed another into his mouth and looked at the envelope. He picked it up and looked at it. On the front it said his name gracefully written in traditional kanji. On the back it read: 'Someone asked my to deliver this to you (heart)'. He blinked and opened it. The letter read:

'_Dear Gaara,_

_We really hope that maybe you can find your reason to exist here in our village. We want you to know that we love you very much and you are always welcome with us. We hope you and Temari and Kankurou have a very happy first Christmas together._

_Love,_

(underneath was lots of different signatures)

_Naruto 'tebaiyo, Sakura (flower drawing), Kakashi, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Asuma, Shino, Hinata (little smiley face), Kiba (underline underline), (a paw print), Kurenai, Lee (little face with ping teeth), Tenten, Gai ("Power of youth!!!"), Jiraiya (Ero-rennin was written with Naruto's handwriting), Neji (Naruto's handwriting again: 'I love you!!'), Tsunade-obaachan (We love you!!!)_

Inside was a group picture of Naruto, Sakura, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Temari, Kankurou and himself taken a while ago when he had come back from the trip with Tsuande. Gaara stared at it for a very long time.

* * *

**ok, NOW christmas day**

Sand nins are very well known for their deadly ninja skills. Also for their inability to be taken by surprise by any known ninjas. However the shinobi of Konoha are not normal shinobi's.

Temari and Kankurou woke up Christmas morning excited, but not excited enough to get them out of bed faster. Gaara was the same, except he was awake obviously. They slumped out into the very quiet hallway and slowly and sleepily went down stairs.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!"

All three sand nin visably jumped and leaned against the wall, clutching their pounding hearts. When they settled down they looked around their living room. Everyone was there, and I mean everyone, crowded on the sofa, chairs and floor. Even Chunnin 1 and Chunnin 2 were there.

"Whoa...." Kankurou mumbled.

"Come on! Come on! You guys take forever to get down here!" Naruto called from where he was sitting with Hinata and Kiba.

"Sor-ry!" Temari said sarcastically. "We didn't know our house was being invaded. Maybe we would have hurried a little more."

Kankurou thought on this for a bit. "Nah...I would've been asleep."

"Ok, ok, whatever," Tsunade said from her perch in (cough cough) Gaara's chair ("hey!"). "Come on, we want to open presents!"

Now since there are more then like twenty five people I'm going to skip most of the gift exchange. Sorry, but that's to much to write and I'm already on page ten.

Temari ran over to where Gaara and Neji were sitting in a love seat (pun not intended) and plopped down on Gaara's lap. She hugged him and showed him the white gold earings and necklace Shikamaru had given her.

"I got you something too. Sakura said I should, so I did." He reached down next to the chair and picked up a package about two and a half feet long and about two inches wide.

"Can I open it now?" she asked. Gaara nodded and she proceeded to open it. Pulling away part of the wrapping, the light caught on something inside making it shine. Curious she pulled it away fast and stared at the object in her hand. It was a fan, much smaller then her normal one (dimensions have already been given), but it was made out of clear and black glass. Carefully, she opened it to it's full length and stared at it. "Wow, Gaara....." she said in awe. "What are these?" she asked pointing to small veins running from the 'handle' to the wide tips of the fan.

"They're chakra strings," Gaara explained. "It's a special fan, you can send chakra into it and it becomes ten times more powerful then your normal one." He sounded quite proud of himself. Which he was. He thought of this present all on his own, kinda like he thought of Neji's all on his own.

Temari: (tremble tremble)

She looked up at Gaara, lower lip trembling, and Gaara thought he did something wrong until she burst into tears and glomped him. Repeatedly, squealing her thanks.

**Skip a bit more I only thought of a few presents**

Neji and Gaara continued to make themselves invisible as they watched everyone open their presents. Kiba and Shino's presents to each other were funny (yes Shino got Kiba a funny present). Kiba got Shino an ant farm kit and Shino got Akamaru a rawhide bone and Kiba a box of dog biscuits. While everyone was laughing as Kiba glared at Shino then turned around and ate a few, Gaara glanced sideways at Neji. Without looking at him he shoved a small package in his face.

Neji blinked and took it, glancing at Gaara in surprised. "What's this?" he asked. Dumb questions 'R' Us.

"It's a present," Gaara replied. Obvious answers 'R' him. "Sakura said to get something I thought was special for you so I did."

Neji smiled and began opening it. Gaara tried to pretend that he didn't care to see Neji's reaction, but Neji could see him staring at him from the corner of his eye. Inside was a small box.

"Wow! A box! Thank you!" Neji cried softly (their still trying to be invisible).

Gaara blushed. "It's inside the box!!" he cried.

"I know, I know," Neji assured him ginning. He opened the box and found a silver chain. He pulled it out to look at the object it held. It was the Sunaga symbol made of glass with thin metal wire inside. Intertwined with the symbol was the Konoha leaf also with a thin metal inside. "It's so pretty..." Neji said staring at it. He unclasped it and put on. "Thank you."

"Welcome," Gaara muttered quietly.

"_OH MY GOD_!! What is it?!" Sakura shouted from the other side of the room. "He wouldn't let me see it!"

This outburst drew all the attention that the two had been avoiding completely at them. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at them also curious to see what it was. Neji and Gaara went all shifty eyes looking around at everyone.

"Stop staring at me," Gaara said, breaking the silence.

When you've forgotten something really the only thing that would remind you of it is looking at the person that was associated with the something. Gaara saying something reminded every single person in the room that they got presents for him too, he just made himself so scarce that they forgot. Neji's present from Gaara was soon forgotten as everyone rushed over and piled their presents on top of the startled sand nin, with exclamations of "open mind first!".

"They're all for me?" Gaara asked in surprise. He'd never really gotten a present before.

"Duh!" Sakura said with a grin. "Who else would they be for?"

Gaara stared at her the glanced at Neji and Kankurou, who was kneeling next to the chair, and them both smiled at him. He gave them a small smile back then began opening his present.

* * *

OMG!! I've never wanted to get a chapter over with so much before! This was suppose to come out on christmas but you can see how that turned out. 

The Next chapters are the beginning of the end, but don't worry, it's still a ways away. :P

LOVE YAS!!!


	14. Ghostfist

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 14: The Ghost Fist

Hello peoples....

Shukaku holds up a sign that said "**WARNING SHE'S PISSED**"

I only got 5. count em five. reviews for my last chapter. thats not cool. reviews are good. review make me happy. I WANT REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please and thank you

* * *

Deep in the heart of Otogura or what ever it's called–the Sound country!!, lay Orochimaru's 'cave' mansion. Inside this cave mansion was Orochimaru's hideout. Inside Orochimaru's hide out was....Orochimaru!! And inside Orochimaru was a snake but that was a little to far. Anyway, Orochimaru was one of those villains that you like but don't like. For instance, he is one cool bad guy, but he's one of those bad guys that you can like never beat because he knows so much about everything. Where am I getting at with this? Ok, well, right now he was very well informed about what was happening in Konoha. Especially with the sand nins. He knew that Tsunade was training Sabaku no Gaara and Haruno Sakura; Jiraiya was training Naruto; Hyuga Neji was training Kankurou; Temari didn't need anyone to train her; and everyone of the leaf gennins that had made such a problem before were getting stronger and stronger. But the thing he was most worried with was Naruto, the Hyuga's and the sand nins. The whole reason he had made an alliance with the sand nins was because he knew about the Kiokubun'ya (why? Just cause he's one of _those_ bad guys) and he hoped that he would be able to use it for himself. 

However, now Konoha had the blood limit. His spies had told him that the leaf nins had created a strong bond with the three last remaining carriers of the blood limit and it would be impossible to bring them over. The only remaining option would be to kill them. Which was what he was working on right now. Kankurou may be the strongest of the three, but Gaara would be the most trouble. Tsunade had past down her destructive strength to him (yeah I know I never said anything about that but it happened sometime after Christmas cause this is in the spring), and on top of that he had the sand to protect him.

But that didn't matter anymore.

He had a way around that.

* * *

On days like this day when Tsunade couldn't train him, and Naruto was too busy to hang out, Gaara spent his time working with the Kiokubun'ya at the old graveyard. Or he would talk to the ghosts, but none of them seemed to be around today either. 

Gaara sighed heavily. When one is use to being alone one doesn't get lonely that often, but when one has just gotten use to being around people a lot like Gaara had, being alone for more then twenty minutes feels like hours. He couldn't find Neji to hang out with. Heck he would even hang out with Sakura, but he couldn't find her either.

"Sabaku no Gaara."

"..." Gaara stood slowly at the familiar tone, yet unfamiliar voice. It was the tone that anyone who ever tried to assassinate him used. There was a sound nin sitting on Hyuga Hizashi's gravestone. "Don't sit there," Gaara said giving the man a glare.

The man humphed and slid off the stone.

Gaara continued to watch him suspiciously. What was a sound nin doing alone in Konoha?

"Don't worry," he said. "I'm not here to assassinate your Hokage or a spying mission."

"I wasn't. I could kill you before you could make a move," Gaara said with his old, cool demeanor.

The man laughed. "I have a personal message for you Gaara, from Orochimaru-sama." he suddenly leaped forward and rushed at Gaara. " 'Don't get too cocky with your sand!' "

He moved to punch Gaara, but the sand came up to stop it, blocking the sound nin from Gaara's view for the two second this happened. He had the armor of sand on anyway.

WAM!!!

Gaara flew back, headlong at a tree, but was caught by the sand. Gaara sat up and stared at the man as he walked towards him with a wicked grin on his face. The sand had come up! Had the sound nin been too fast for the sand to catch him? Gaara reached up to touch his cheek and lip where he had been hit to see if the armor had cracked at all. It was still smooth, but when he pulled his hand away, he saw blood.

"Tsk tsk tsk. You sand nins, always think your better then everyone," the man said almost on top of Gaara now. "You see, against me, your sand is useless and you are helpless."

* * *

Hinata sighed and glanced over again at Kiba wondering when he would stop talking. He was apparently having a very heated agreement with Shino about how dogs make better pets then bugs. This had been going on for about an hour and a half since they left together to take Akamaru for a walk together (team bonding and all that) and Shino hadn't said a single word or changed his expression since they began. 

Suddenly Akamaru, who had gone ahead, came running back to them, barking up a storm.

"ARF ARF!!"

"What's that boy? Blood?" Kiba asked in serious mode.

"What?" Hinata cried softly her hand flying to her mouth.

"ARFARFARFARF!!!"

"Calm down, Akamaru! What blood?"

"ARF! ARF!"

"Someone's hurt? Show us!" the three gennins ran after Akamaru to the edge of a clearing. What they saw made them freeze in their tracks.

* * *

"Hokage-sama!!" Hinata shouted, bursting into the office. The jonnins turned to give her the adult look that said 'kid how dare you interrupt our meeting'. Tsuande however, loved being interrupted during meeting. 

"What's wrong?" she asked the Hyuga.

"It's Gaara-kun!" she said, as Kiba and Shino gently carried the sand nin into the room.

Tsuande's face blanched and she rushed over to them. "Set him down," she ordered, she began examining him for serious injuries. As her hand brushed a bruise on his side, he made a whimper noise.

"Gaara-kun?" Hinata murmured from where she knelt next to him. He opened his eyes slightly and groaned.

"Don't move, Gaara," Tsuande ordered softly. "Excuse me," she said to the shinobi around her. "I have to take care of Gaara."

"But, Tsuande-sam–"

"I don't want to hear about him being a sand-nin!" she said angrily. "I'm going to take care of Gaara." Gently she lifted him up and carried him to the hospital next to the Hokage building.

"No.." Gaara mumbled.

"What's wrong?" Tsuande asked, looking down at the small boy in her arms.

"Not the hospital," Gaara pleaded.

"I have to, you may have some broken bones," she said. She turned to the three gennins that had followed her. "You three go find Temari and Kankurou.....and Neji too, while your at it."

"Hai!"

* * *

"WHAT?!!" Kankurou cried. 

"Gaara's hurt?!!" Neji cried.

"He's at the hospital?!!" Temari cried.

"Yeah, Tsuande took him to there," Kiba said.

"WHAT?!!" Kankurou cried.

"Gaara's hurt?!!" Neji cried.

"He's at the HOSPITAL?!!" Temari cried.

"WHAT?!!" Kankurou cried again. "Gaara hates hospitals!"

"Where is he?!!" Neji asked.

By this time, even Shino was ready to bash his head against the nearest tree.

"HE'S AT THE HOS-PI-TAL!!! TSUNADE-SAMA WANTS YOU TO GO. TO. THE. HOS-PI-TAL!!!" Shino screeched.

"Oh," they all said. They jumped up and ran to the hospital leaving two very frustrated boys and a sighing girl behind.

* * *

"Tsuande-sama, you have to let Gaara leave!" Temari said, very worried. 

"What? Why?"

"Gaara really, really, doesn't like hospitals," she said. "I mean like really doesn't. He's actually terrified of them."

"He is?" Tsuande asked stunned and a little worried. "Oh, my god.. I didn't know."

"It's ok I guess. Just...can he leave soon?"

"Of course, I'll set it up."

"Why is Gaara scared of hospitals?" Neji asked the sand nins as they quickly went to Gaara's room.

"Why are you so obsessed with my brother?!" Kankurou demanded, stopping suddenly.

"Wh–I was just.." Neji stammered.

Kankurou gave a scoff and went to Gaara's room. Neji looked uncomfortable, as Temari touched his shoulder. "He's just worried about Gaara, ok?" she said. Neji gave her a little smile and they followed Kankurou.

Temari opened the door and stepped in, freezing as she spotted Gaara. Tsunade had put seals around Gaara to let him rest more, and heal faster. Temari's eyes widened and she began to tremble.

"Hello? Temari?" Kankurou said behind her, irritated. "Mind moving? What's wrong?" he looked over her shoulder and saw Gaara.

"Oh god..." Temari whispered. "Gaara.." She moved towards him like she was in a trance. "No! Take them off him! They'll hurt him!" she cried, about to rip the seals away from him.

"Temari calm down!" Kankurou said, holding her down. "I don't think you can just take them off like that! Tsunade-sama wouldn't put them on if they would hurt him!" he held her tighter to keep her from bolting towards their brother.

She collapsed, sobbing against him. "Take them off him! Take them off!"

Neji turned and left the room, looking for Tsunade. Kankurou managed to get Temari to leave the room so the doctors could take the seals away.

**(Yadda yada)**

After the doctors were finished taking the seals off. Neji went in to see Gaara. How had he known they were done? He waited outside the door of course. Gaara was laying ridged on the bed with his eyes squeezed shut and his body so tense it was trembling.

"Hey," Neji said touching Gaara's arm.

Gaara cracked his eyes then squeezed them shut again. "Can I go now? Please?"

Neji unclenched on of Gaara's hands and slipped his into it. The unclenching part didn't really work cause Gaara just squeezed again, placing Neji into a death grip. "Tsunade-sama is getting all that ready," he assured him.

Temari and Kankurou then came in, Temari now much calmer.

"When are we leaving?" he asked them through clenched teeth.

"Right now," Tsuande said at the door. Kankurou carried Gaara piggy back style out of the building and straight to their house. "I'm so sorry, Gaara," Tsuande told him when the sand nin was safe in his own bed. "I didn't know." she brushed his bangs of his face as he looked at the bandage wrapped around his arm. They looked up when Neji came in with a big dish of Lo Mein and rice (courtesy of Hinata). He lounged on the stack of pillows Gaara wasn't using next to him . He served him a bowl of the noodles and rice and a set of chopsticks.

"What happened?" Neji asked Gaara. "I just don't understand how this could hap–" Neji stared at the empty bowl Gaara was holding out for more, "–pen...." he blinked then gave him more.

"I don't know," Gaara said between bites.

"Who did it?" Tsunade asked, not minding Gaara eating enough give Chouji a run for his money. She was use to it.

"A sound nin."

"Hinata-sama says you were at the old graveyard what were you doing there?" Neji asked.

Gaara didn't answer as he swallowed the rest of his second helping. He had gone there to talk to Hyuga Hizashi, but he didn't want to tell Neji that. He might get mad at him again. "Training," he replied, holding the bowl up for more. Neji gave up and handed him the whole dish.

"Do you remember anything else?" Tsuande asked. "It's important."

Gaara paused. "He said 'not to get too cocky with your sand'."

"Well, that's true you shouldn't," Tsunade said. "Something like this could happen."

Gaara and Neji glared at her.

Tsunade suddenly thought of something and bopped Gaara on the head. "What the hell were you doing!?" she shrieked.

"Huh?" Gaara said confused, clutching his head.

"Why didn't you fight him back like I've been teaching you?!?!" she demanded.

"I–I...don't..know..." he stammered.

Tsuande sighed then sat back. "Did he say anything else?"

"I don't think so," Gaara mumbled.

"Alright," she stood and walked out. "I'll see what I can find out."

Neji sighed and leaned back again. "You ok?" he asked.

"Yeah," Gaara nodded and finished the Lo mein. He also sighed and laid back on the bed, touching the bandage on his forehead.

They were silent for a while until Neji broke the silence.

"Hey Gaara?"

"Hm?"

"Why are you–why don't you like hospitals?"

"......" Gaara paused then sighed again. "When I was little, before my father first tried to assassinate me, Temari had to go to the hospital cause she had pneumonia. I went to see her with Kankurou even though father ordered me to stay away from them. We thought Temari was dying so we were already a little scared." Gaara turned and looked at the door. "The doctors freaked cause I was there and chased me into a room and I couldn't get out." Gaara paused for a while.

"What else?" Neji asked scooting down so he was laying next to the sand nin.

Gaara turned his face to him, but looked down. "The Kazekage use to have people watch me like an experiment. I was only created to promote the Hidden Sand village. That is all. They didn't care if I was scared. I'm their tool."

Neji stared at him with pity eyes. There was more to the story, but he was willing to wait until Gaara was willing to tell him the rest. He reached over and poked Gaara's forehead making him look up. "Not anymore," Neji said smiling. Gaara stared at him as the Hyuga reached over and picked up two things he saw on the night stand next to the bed. It was a picture frame and a small box. "What's this?"

"Sakura and Tsunade-obaachan's gifts," Gaara replied.

Neji looked at the frame Sakura had given. It was the kind of frame that held three pictures. One was the picture that 'Santa Clause' had left him. The other two were pictures Sakura had specifically taken for the frame on Christmas day. One of Gaara and Neji (she made them both pose and smile on pain of cruel and unusual torture) and the other was of the three sand nins. Kankurou had his arms around both and all three were laughing (Sound familiar? It should,_ Past Meets Future _readers). Gently putting the frame down on the bed he looked at the little box from Tsunade.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Open it," Gaara said.

Neji opened the top, triggering the little switch inside that made the box start playing. It was a slow melody, but Neji could tell Gaara liked it. (I chose, because I love the song, the .HACKSign song or whatever it is it's purty)

* * *

"What do you think happened?" Jiraiya asked Tsunade when she came down into the sand nins living room. 

"Apparently it was one of Orochimaru's henchmen," she replied. "But I don't understand how he got that hurt."

"Hm." Jiraiya thought for a while. "I think the only way we could really tell would be if there was someone there."

"Yeah, the fact that the sand did help him made Gaara freak," Tsuande said.

"Um, Tsunade-sama?"

"Yes, Temari?" Tsuande said turning to the kitchen door.

"There was someone there, maybe more," she said looking nervous.

"Who? Gaara said he was alone," Tsuande said frowning.

"Tsunade-sama, Gaara is never alone."

Tsunade blinked and began thinking this over. Asking Shukaku hadn't occurred to her before.

"Also, what if the ghosts in the graveyard saw?" she offered. "Did Gaara tell you he could see and talk to them?"

"Yes, he did," Tsuande said. "But only he can talk to them, that wouldn't help. I suppose I could ask Shukaku."

"Or you could ask Neji," Kankurou intervened. "When we were training, if you loose control of the Kiokubun'ya, not so much that you pass out, just loose it, the person your with sees something from your memory. Even if you don't remember it."

"No, I don't want Gaara to do that," Tsunade said. "_I_ will asked Shukaku."

Temari and Kankurou gulped. "....Ok...."

* * *

As evening became night, Gaara looked over at Neji. The hyuga had fallen asleep with his music box in hand. Was his bed really that comfortable? He took the music box and rewound it and let it play again. 

His door opened, but it was to dark to see who it was, but he felt no bloodlust and wasn't worried. He suddenly felt chakra spread through the room and someone mumble the spell of fake sleep. Gaara sat up in panic, but to late as the spell began to take effect on him and sleep overtook him and he collapsed back onto the bed.

Tsunade walked up to the bed. "I'm sorry Gaara," she said softly. In a different tone she said, "I know your awake.

Gaara's eyes opened and the Shukaku stared back at her. "**What do _you_ want now?**" he asked.

"I want you to tell me what happened in the graveyard today," she asked.

Shukaku scoffed. "**Why should I tell you anything, I see nothing in it for me.**"

Tsunade, expecting this reaction, smiled slyly. "You do realize that if Orochimaru's found a way around the sand that your life is in danger as well. If Gaara gets killed you are trapped in a soulless body forever," she said.

Shukaku glared. Damn, he hated this woman! "**What do you want to know?**"

"Tell me exactly what happened."

**Flashback (Shukaku's POV)**

_The sound nin charged at Gaara ready to punch him. Shukaku rolled his eyes._

_**Here we go again....**_

_The sand came up to protect the sand nin, but it didn't work. With his left hand he made three quick seals while he was obscured from Gaara's view._

_Shukaku blinked and frowned as the man held up his hand in the sign of the something._

"_Ghostfist no Jutsu!" he muttered as his right hand went through the sand, colliding with Gaara's mouth._

_Shukaku:** o.O !!! Hey! He's not allowed to do that!**_

_He mentally prodded Gaara, but his vessel was so freaked out that he didn't reply or feel it._

_The sound nin began beating the crap out of Gaara. The sand nin didn't do anything to fight back. His pain tolerance was lacking extensively._

_Shukaku: **'crap this is bad' HEY!!!! Kid! Pay attention! Snap out of it! That bitchy devil of a woman did teach you some things!! Fight him back! ARGH! You IDIOT!! YOU SUCK!!! YOU–**_

"Alright I get it!!" Tsuande cried cutting off the flashback.

"**Well, you asked,**" Shukaku said folding Gaara's arms.

" 'Ghostfist no Jutsu...' " Tsunade mumbled. "This could be a serious problem...."

She looked up and saw Shukaku about to sneak out the window. "HEY GET BACK HERE YOU!!!"

* * *

Ok now people. here's what you have to do. Follow the dots 

dot

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right undeneath the dots is a little purpley blue button.

push purpley blue button

type something that I will like

click summit review

good job


	15. Sleep Overs Are Fun

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 15: Sleep overs are fun

* * *

Gaara stared at Tsuande with a funny expression. It was a mix of anger, exasperation and a large twinge of fear. She was pacing in front of him giving him the wrap up pf his new training schedule. When she finished his mouth hung open and his eye twitched.

"You're not serious," Gaara said hoping she wasn't.

"Of course I am," she said smiling a false sweet smile. She pointed down the clearing. "Run run run!"

Gaara didn't move.

"Now, before I follow behind you with a whip and chain," she said in the sweet voice through gritted teeth.

Gaara groaned and slowly stood and stretched, then started moving around the clearing (it's actually not really a clearing I've realized cause it's like as big as a track). Tsunade frowned at his unwillingness to run and snuck up behind him.

"I'm serious," she said in a low, cold, monotone.

Gaara 'eeped' and started running.

* * *

"HI NEJI!"

"Hi Kankurou," Neji said, unmoving.

"Damn it, you didn't jump!" Kankurou said moving in front of the Hyuga.

"Kankurou, you've been jumping out at me for the past six months you've been living here, I think I would've gotten use to it by now," Neji said.

"Pft! Whatever," Kankurou said. He'd get him later when he wasn't expecting it. "So are we training today?"

"Gaara and I were going to do something."

"That's why I'm here, Gaara asked me to tell you how Tsunade-'obaachan' burst into our house and dragged him out," Kankurou said.

"Oh, ok," Neji said, brushing it off.

Kankurou gave him the look that meant that his older brother/friend mind was coming up with something that would embarrass Neji to all get out. Neji saw this and became uncomfortable before Kankurou had even said anything.

"Why don't you ask him to spend the night?" Kankurou asked slyly.

"..." Neji frowned. He hadn't been expecting that. "He doesn't...sleep..."

"Which means he wont mind going all night!" Kankurou said grinning his head off. He couldn't believe he was saying such things about Gaara. That weren't very nice. They were perverted...but they made Neji make those funny faces so nothing else really mattered to him.

Of course Neji made one of said funny faces and turned a darker shade of red then Gaara's hair.

"WHAT?" he screeched.

Several birds flew, startled out of the tree they were resting in.

"I'm kidding!" Kankurou said giving him a hard swat on the back. Neji relaxed slightly. Kankurou paused to let him relax a bit before continuing. "You wouldn't have the guts to do it anyway..."

Neji started the process all over.

Kankurou laughed his head off then looked over at Neji. "So...you wanna train some?"

Neji gave him a death glare rate 12 out of 10 and stood. "You want to..._train_!"

"Yeah," Kankurou said, suddenly serious. "Orochimaru's getting serious. He's still pissed that we took Sasuke from him. He wants him back. It's war in the not funny sense."

Neji became serious too. Kankurou's butt whooping could wait a bit. "Alright, lets go."

* * *

**later that night around...8 something**

Naruto, Sakura and Neji stepping into the Sand House after dinner so visit like they did almost constantly. They found Temari furiously scrubbing pots she had used for dinner in the kitchen, Kankurou dying on the sofa from eating said dinner, and Gaara feeling like he was dying sharing the sofa with his brother. They sat down on the floor near Gaara's head and lightly poked him.

"Eat something bad?" Neji asked.

"No," came the pained reply from the pillow his face was buried in.

"Gaara's hurin'," Kankurou said looking up slightly.

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Where?" Neji asked.

"Everywhere," Gaara mumbled.

Naruto chuckled knowingly. "She's a nasty old hag isn't she?" he asked.

"Mmph.." was Gaara's reply from the pillow.

"Hey," Sakura said, glaring at Naruto.

Temari came in looking less furious now that the dishes were sparkling clean (actually they lost all their finished and she was going to go out tomorrow to get new ones but that doesn't matter). She sighed, leaning on the sofa and reached down to scratch Gaara's back gently.

There was a silence, during which Kankurou gave Neji several pointed looks and Neji gave him 'shut the hell up' looks. Kankurou rolled his eyes and have him a 'ask him or I'll kill you' look and Neji replied with a 'I'd like to see you try' look. Kankurou raised an eyebrow.

"Hey Gaara, Neji wants to know if you wanted to sleep over his house tonight," Kankurou said.

"…I don't sleep," Gaara said after a pause. He could have sworn something crashed next to him.

"Spend the night then," Kankurou said. "It'll be fun."

"… 'spend the night'…?" Gaara asked looking up. "What's that?"

Naruto fell over as Neji sat up. "Bwhahaha! You don't know what—"

Sakura glared at him and bopped him on the head. "You stay at someone's house for the night and you play games and watch movies and stuff," she explained.

"Oh," Gaara replied turning to stare at the wall. Everyone else wondered why they were waiting on baited breath for his answer, but they were. "Ok, I'll spend the night."

* * *

Hello! It is SNG! I would just like everyone to know…. (glares at everyone until they pay attention) that I WROTE THIS SCENE(s)! Therefore, I get all credit except for one scene!

I DEMAND CREDIT THIS TIME, DAMMIT!

P.S.: It's my fault H-R took so long to update… I was busy with my fics and didn't get around to writing this one… Sorry! (bows)

Kyuubi: What a mood swing.

* * *

Neji looked around his room, satisfied that he had made it as clean as it could possibly get. He'd made the bed, washed the windows, scrubbed the floor, straightened his desk, folded all his clothes neatly in his dresser (Why he thought anyone would look in his dresser is a mystery) and had even made sure the pictures on his wall were dead-center.

Why was Neji going to such trouble?

Simple: Gaara was coming for a sleep over.

Well… actually, Gaara was coming to hang out all night while Neji slept.

A thought occurred to the rather skittish Neji. Oh no! If he just spends the whole night to himself while I sleep, he'll get bored and think I'm a bad host! Neji groaned, pulling at his hair. What to do, what to do…

Light bulb: Ding!

Neji smacked his fist into his hand in a flash of insight. How perfectly simple.

"Hinata-sama!" he called, running out of the room and across the hall.

Hinata opened the door to her room, smiling. "Yes, Neji-nii-san?"

"I need your help," he said desperately. "Please? I'll do anything you want, just help me out this once, ok?"

Hinata would have raised an eyebrow at him if he hadn't looked so pathetic. "Um…"

"Please, Hinata-sama!" Neji wailed, getting down on his knees and clasping his hands before his face.

Now that was just scary. "Um… Ok…"

"Thank you!" Neji jumped up, kissed her hand, and ran away down the hall. "Thank you, Hinata-sama!" he called over his shoulder before disappearing out of sight.

What just happened? Hinata wondered curiously before going into her room.

Gaara knocked on the door to the Hyuuga house. He wasn't really sure what this whole "sleep over" thing meant, but the word "sleep" in the title made him think, before even setting foot in the house, that he would get very bored, very fast. So, he'd packed a few 5000-piece puzzles and a book in a backpack Kankurou had lent him, so he could have something to do while Neji slept.

Hanabi opened the door, looking up at the Sand Nin. "Hi, Neji-nii-san's boyfriend!" she cried, after a few moments of starring.

"Er… Hi."

Neji suddenly appeared behind Hanabi and pushed her out of the way, giving her a Barbie. She squealed with delight and ran away down the hall. Neji turned back to Gaara and smiled. "Come on in." He stepped aside to let Gaara pass.

Neji closed the door once Gaara came in, then ushered him into the living room. "Go ahead and sit, I'll be right back," the dark-haired leaf nin told the sand nin before leaving the room.

Gaara looked around and found a rather large, over-stuffed chair that was to his liking (it reminded him of 'his chair' back at his house) and sat down, moving around slightly until he was comfortable.

Suddenly, Hanabi came in with her Barbie and looked up at Gaara blankly.

Gaara looked back.

It was a 'blank look' contest.

"Are you really Neji-nii-san's boyfriend?" she asked suspiciously.

Shukaku: **We won the starring contest! Hell yeah!**

"Probably," Gaara said calmly.

"Then why is—"

Neji and Hinata suddenly reentered the living room; Hinata was carrying a basket, and Neji had an armload of towels. "Hanabi, go play with my old dolls," Hinata said, setting down the large basket full of… stuff… that she was carrying.

Hanabi shrugged and left.

"Hi, Gaara," Hinata said kindly, taking a towel from the pile Neji was holding.

"Er… Hi."

"We're going to have lots of fun," Hinata said cheerfully, tucking the towel up around Gaara's neck. "Sleepover fun!"

"…What?" Gaara raised an eyebrow.

Ten minutes later found Neji and Gaara sitting in plush recliners in bathrobes with cotton balls between their toes and mud masks on their faces, with cucumbers over their eyes. Hinata was currently painting Gaara's toenails with some black nail polish.

**This is… oddly…. Refreshing…** Shukaku mused

"What color are you painting them?" Gaara asked, since he couldn't see what she was doing, for the cucumbers.

"Pretty pink colors," Hinata said casually.

"What!" Gaara sat bolt-upright, starring at her as the cucumber slices fell away.

"I'm kidding," she said, showing him the bottle of black polish.

Shuddering slightly, Gaara sat back and replaced the cucumber slices while Neji chuckled to himself.

After Hinata finished painting Gaara's toenails, she went back to the basket and got a most fearsome weapon, then approached her cousin.

Neji, seeing her through the cucumbers with his Byakugan, gave her a fearful look. "Hinata-sama…. What's that for?"

"Well you know, Neji-nii-san… They are getting out of hand…"

Neji's eyes went temporarily bug-eyed. "No! Hinata-sama!"

"Hold still, Neji-nii-san… It won't hurt that much if you just—"

"Get away from me! Hinata-sama!"

Hinata sighed. "Gaara, can I borrow some sand?"

"Why?"

"I need to hold Neji-nii-san down."

Neji's jaw dropped. "That's not fair!"

Gaara, however, ignored him and put sand around him before Neji could run away. "There."

Hinata smiled her thanks, even though Gaara couldn't see it, and turned on Neji. "Neji-nii-san… This won't hurt a bit."

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Neji screamed bloody blue murder, turning his head away from her as she started. _Oh god…. Father! I have disgraced your name! I'm sorry!__  
_  
After Neji's eyebrows had been successfully plucked and evened out, Hinata washed off their mud masks and declared she had another game to play.

Neji sat in his chair, eye twitching. "Oh god… oh god…"

Gaara, meanwhile, felt his face. "Wow… smoothness…"

"Oh god… Why couldn't she do it to you?" He looked at Gaara.

Gaara indicated the fact that he had no eyebrows.

"…Right. What are we doing now, Hinata-sama?"

"Hide and Seek!" she said cheerfully. "Neji, you're 'it'. Gaara and I will hide."

"Why am I always 'it'?" Neji muttered to himself while Hinata and Gaara left the room.

(A FEW MINUTES LATER)

**Hey, Kid,** Shukaku said as Gaara walked down the halls of the Hyuuga manor.

"What?"

**I just realized a serious flaw in your plan to walk around and not be noticed.****  
**  
"What's that?"

**HE CAN SEE THROUGH WALLS, DAMMIT!****  
**  
Gaara stopped dead. Pause…_Shit!_ He paused for a moment, then made the seal to summon charka. "Henge!"

Five minutes later, Neji and Hinata (who Neji found posing as a potted plant) walked down the hall and found a very adorable kitten with red fur and raccoon-markings.

Neji frowned, picking it up and holding it at arms' length. "When did we get a cat?"

"Chichi-ue is allergic to cats," Hinata pointed out, looking at the cat.

Neji frowned at the kitten. "Let's put it outside before Hiashi-sama breaks out in hives again—Oh, man…" He groaned.

The kitten had pulled a Puss In Boots, blinking huge green eyes up at Neji; eyes that had the power to stop an army.

Neji yelped, closing his eyes and turning his head away. "Dammit!"

Kitten: Blink blink.

"I can still see it, dammit!" Neji shouted, realizing that he still had his Byakugan activated.

"Aw, let's just keep him and hide him from Chichi-ue," Hinata begged.

Neji frowned, looking at the cat. "Doesn't really act like a cat to me.."

Kitten: …'Me-ow?'

Neji: Sweatdrop. "Gaara, un-do that Henge."

Gaara appeared in a puff of smoke, frowning.

**Damn your inability to do a proper Henge!** Shukaku hissed.

Hinata emitted a very unladylike yawn and looked at the wall clock which magically appeared for the very purpose of her having a time mechanism to look at. "I'm going to go to bed now," she informed her cousin and friend. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night, Hinata-sama," Neji said as she went down the hall.

"Good night," Gaara added before she disappeared around the corner.

"Come on, let's watch some TV," Neji said, jutting his thumb over his shoulder.

"Ok." Gaara followed him back to the living room.

* * *

Gaara turned the TV off and looked over at Neji. The Hyuuga had tried his hardest to stay awake with him, and had lasted until four fifteen in the morning. Gaara didn't mind that Neji had gone to sleep, though; he hadn't expected him to stay up at all and was surprised when he tried to.

The normally poised Hyuuga was slumped on the sofa like a rag doll, sleeping soundly with his head on Gaara's shoulder. After a few minutes of starring at the top of Neji's head, Gaara tried to move him, but found he couldn't, as Neji was about six inches taller then him and twenty pounds heavier. However, Gaara didn't want to have to wake Neji up, so he called some sand to him and gently lifted Neji off the sofa and carried him to his room.

Neji's room wasn't exactly what Gaara had thought it would look like. It wasn't plain, or anything, but it wasn't overly decorated, either. Across the room from the door was a futon with black covers and a whole mess of pillows. Against the wall to the right of the bed was a tall dresser with a few random things on it. Against the wall to the left was a book case with a whole bunch of scrolls and books, as well as a few framed pictures. Next to the book case was a beanbag with a few opened books dropped around it. Above the bed was a large window. At the foot of the bed was an isle with a blank canvas and a bucket next to it with a few bottles of paint in it, as well as some brushes.

Gaara carefully laid the still-sleeping Neji on the bed and sat near the foot of the bed, on the floor, watching him, hundreds of questions flashing through his mind. Gaara frowned when he saw Neji shivering.

**Flashback****  
**  
_"Why are you shivering?" Gaara asked Sakura as the two of them and Tsunade huddle around a camp fire. Gaara had a sleeping bag and a lot of sand wrapped around him, so he didn't feel the cold, and Tsunade was too drunk to notice, but Sakura was literally blue._

_"Because I'm cold!" she answered through chattering teeth. "I hate camping without a sleeping bag! No one should have to sleep without covers!"__  
_  
**End flashback****  
**  
Gaara grabbed the covers at the bottom of the bed and put them over Neji, who promptly stopped shivering, then sat on the floor next to the bed, taking out one of his puzzles.

Within an hour and a half, he was starring in frustration at the finished puzzle. It was a picture of a bird flying in a flurry of little green leaves. _It's confusing,_ he thought, looking at Neji, who was sleeping peacefully.

**What is?****  
**  
_Why does he care so much?_ Gaara decided to think rather then speak to Shukaku, so as not to wake Neji. Shukaku was silent, as if waiting for Gaara to continue. _He's always nice to me… and made sure to stay up as long as he could… and he's always doing nice things for me… but why?_

**Why not?****  
**  
_Well… because I was… a murderer… and I was never nice to anyone… what made him like me?__  
_  
**If it makes you feel any better, he wasn't exactly the sweetest pea in the pod, either.****  
**  
_But still… what did I do?__  
_  
**Ask him.****  
**  
_He's sleeping.__  
_  
**So, wake him up. He'll go back to sleep after you do. He looks dead-tired to me.****  
**  
_All the more reason for me not to wake him up. I'll ask him in the morning.__  
_  
**Brat, get your butt over there and ask him before I do!****  
**  
Gaara sighed. He knew Shukaku wouldn't give him any peace if he didn't ask. Besides, Neji would go back to sleep… hopefully. He went over to Neji's bed and shook Neji gently. "Neji…?"

Neji yawned, stretched and rolled over.

Gaara shook him harder. "Neji?"

Neji made a jaw-cracking yawn and stuck his head under his pillow, going limp again.

Gaara frowned. "Neji!" he said in a loud whisper, shaking him hard.

"Huh? What?" Neji lifted his bed-head out and looked around. His eyes fell on Gaara. "Did I fall asleep?"

Nod.

"Oh, man… Ok, I'll stay awake." Neji sat up in bed, but instantly started nodding.

Gaara shook his shoulders gently. "Neji! I need to ask you something."

"Huh?" Neji blinked rapidly. "Ok. What is it?" He made his eyes go very wide, so he wouldn't close them anymore.

"Er…" Gaara sought for words. "Why do you… like me?" he asked, not looking at Neji, but instead, at Neji's hands, which were in Neji's lap.

Neji was awake now. "What?"

"Why do you like me?" Gaara repeated, still not looking at him.

(Clarence: Because we're gay!) (SNG: Hee hee… Couldn't resist. Go see Lee's List Of Manliness to understand.) Neji frowned. "What kind of question is that?"

"Well… I was curious…"

Neji's frown of slight anger turned to a thoughtful one as he scratched his chin, looking out the window, deep in thought. "I guess…"

Gaara looked up.

"I guess, at first, I admired your strength, because you were able to beat Lee, my teammate, in the Chuunin exam," Neji began. "When I heard you and your brother and sister helped rescue our squad from the Sound Nins, I thought, 'well, no wonder we got out of it alive'…"

Gaara looked at his own hands, slightly embarrassed but at the same time a little sad that Neji only liked him for his strength, supposedly.

"…But then, after Kankurou and I started training together, and I saw more and more of you," Neji continued, not seeing Gaara's look, "I started looking at you as a person, and not just another ninja. And I started seeing your qualities, too."

"Quality?" Gaara repeated.

**What are we, eggs?****  
**  
"Yeah. You know, your sense of humor (You have a sense of humor? Shut up!), your care towards your siblings, things like that. I admired these qualities, too, but at the same time, I admired the person who had them, for just being who he was." Neji suddenly blushed slightly. "Then, I started to actually look at you… and I started liking… the way you look…"

Gaara looked up again, confused. "The way I look?"

Neji nodded, turning to give him a small smile. "You have pretty eyes."

Gaara blinked. _I do?_

**You do?****  
**  
Neji smiled, reading the look. "You do." He yawned again and scooted over. "Come on," he said, patting the bed next to him. "You don't have to sleep."

Gaara climbed meekly up on the futon and laid down, propping his head up with the pillows Neji put there for him. After Gaara was situated, Neji laid his head on Gaara's stomach as a pillow and fell back to sleep.  
_  
__I like sleep-overs,_ Gaara informed Shukaku.

**Good for you. My brain is melting.**

* * *

...grins shyly...er...hi...

gulps at all the crazy readrer staring at her..

SHUKAKU SAVE ME!

Shukaku (chilling in a tree): **oh hell no I'm coming down to save u those peopel have teapots!**

Ur r such a useless demon...


	16. Complicated Situations

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 16: Complicated situations

ok first...YAY! NEW NARUTO CHAPTER 247!

Second, when I first read people's fics with Gaara being the Kazekage I didn't like them...now I really don't know what to think...he looks cool though. Applause for those who have incredible insight.

* * *

Gaara stepped into the Sand House and found Temari and Kankurou in the living room waiting expectantly. He started to ignore them and go up to his room, but Temari made a loud, obvious clearing of the throat noise. Rolling his eyes, he turned back to them. Kankurou made a motion for Gaara to sit in his chair.

Gaara sat.

And waited.

Nothing happened. They just watched him.

Gaara gave them a '….?...' look.

Still nothing happened.

Gaara started to get up again.

"Sit down, little boy!" Temari ordered, causing Gaara to freeze in mid rise and slowly sit down again hands folded in his lap.

Long silence.

"So.." Temari said. "Did you have fun?"

Gaara raised a shoulder and dropped it.

"Did you hang out all night?"

Shoulder raise.

"Did he stay up with you?"

Shoulder raise.

"Did you watch nice movies?"

Shoulder raise.

"Did he do anything that would make me want to set up wanted posters?"

Eyebrow raise.

"WHAT THE HELL DID HE DO TO YOU!" Kankurou suddenly exploded.

Gaara stared at them with the most confused look a twelve year old could possibly muster unintentionally.

"Huh?"

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT FAKE INNOCENT TONE!" Kankurou shrieked. He paused panting. "I know he was planning to do something to you! And I thought he wouldn't have the guts! ……damn it!"

Gaara was now labeled at the most confused sand nin in the entire world. He knew Kankurou was off, he was born like that. But when he lost it like this Temari usually stopped him. But she didn't. This seemed to be the root of her own questions and Kankurou didn't feel like waiting.

"I …don't—" Gaara stuttered, outwardly showing his confusion.

"Don't hide it, Gaara. Tell us the truth!" Temari said sternly, staring at him intently.

"Hide what?" Gaara asked. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Kankurou and Temari looked at him like they didn't believe him, then at each other then back again. Kankurou gave a heaving sigh and folded his arms.

"Gaara, did you and Neji have sex?"

"WHAT! NO!" Gaara involuntarily screeched. His eyes got wide and he looked emensly freaked out. He almost jumped up himself, but he would have cracked his siblings heads on sand since they were standing right over him.

Temari and Kankurou looked at one another and for a short time shared a brain wave. _'Well, that answers that question. I knew he couldn't do it.'_

When they looked back at Gaara's chair he was gone. They caught a glimps of him running up the stairs and heard his door slam shut as he tried to hide from their insane questions. The two smiled to themselves. What good siblings they were!

* * *

Gaara sat in the corner of his bed, glomping his pillow. What the hell had happened to his siblings! He leaves them alone for one night and they go crazy! After he decided that they weren't coming up to talk to him again he go off the bed and set his backpack down. 

The phone rang down stairs and he heard Temari answer it. Sighing without interest, he pulled the manga Neji lent him out and set it on his dresser next to the tri-frame Sakura had gotten him.

"Gaara!" Temari called up. "Sakura's on the phone! She wants to speak to you!"

Gaara went downstairs and gingerly took the phone from Temari and hurried up the stairs. He went into his room and shut the door.

"Sakura, Temari and Kankurou've gone mad!" he whispered frantically into the phone.

"What?"

"They're asking me all these weird questions cause I spent the night over Neji's," he said sitting down against the door.

"Aw…you spend the night?" Sakura said into the phone. "That's so cute!"

"…cute?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah, what'd you guys do?"

"Nothing…"

Sakura made a noise to show that she wasn't going to let this go. "You wanna come with me to get something to eat?"

"Fine…. When?" Gaara asked glancing over at the clock.

A knock sounded at his door he opened it and saw her standing there, cellphone to ear.

"Right now?"

Gaara gave her a funny look and hung up.

"Please?" she asked. "I need to talk to you about something anyway."

Gaara raised an eyebrow, then put the phone down and shut the door in her face. Sakura sighed and waited. (**damn bastard! Why can't he just say 'hold on a sec'!**) Five minutes later Gaara opened the door again and stepped out in different clothes. They went down the stairs and started to go out the door.

"Aren't you gonna tell your brother and sister you're going out?" she asked pausing.

Gaara stopped and looked back at the house then turned away again. "No."

Sakura shook her head and turned to the house. "WE'RE LEAVING!" she shouted as she followed him outside.

* * *

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Gaara asked as they waited for their food. 

Sakura took a long sip of her soda then sighed. "I have a big problem," she said. "Lee-san asked me to go on this date tonight to a fancy restaurant where you eat and dance."

"….and that's a problem why?" Gaara asked.

Sakura blushed and mumbled something into her straw.

"Can't hear you."

"I don't know how to dance!" she shouted.

Gaara blinked and stared then started laughing. Sakura's deepened. Gaara was _laughing_ at her! Laughing! Like some normal thirteen year old.

"I don't know what made _you_ laugh, but it's not funny!" Sakura cried.

"You can't dance?" Gaara asked.

Sakura glared at him as their food came. His smile instantly dropped and the laughing boy instantly became the glaring demon vessel again. He remained that way even after the waiter left.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"Why did you do that?"

"What?"

"Stop smiling," she said observing him. "You look a lot better when you're smiling."

Gaara shrugged. "Why are you telling me your problem?" he asked.

Sakura did a little freak out thing. "Cause you're my friend!" she said, as if it was obvious. "Friends tell each other their problems!"

"Oh," Gaara replied. He frowned. "How would I know that?"

Sakura giggled and started eating. "Well, anyway, I need help! I need to find someone who can teach me to dance."

"Why don't you tell Lee you can't?"

"You don't tell your date that!" Sakura said. "Urgh! You gotta learn these things! You have a date too." Her eyes narrowed slyly. "What about you and Neji?"

Gaara flinched and swallowed the French fry in his mouth. "What about us?"

"What'd you guys do last night?" she inquired.

"None of your business," Gaara replied, before he realized that was the wrong thing to say to a curious girl.

"Oh, really?" she said leaning forward across the table. She gave him a knowing smile. "I'm sure he had a wonderful time."

Gaara's cheeks turned pink. "We didn't do anything like that!"

"Like what?"

"You know…"

"Did you kiss?"

"NO!" his face turned a shade of deep red.

Sakura pouted. Nothing interesting happened then.

Gaara stuffed his face with French fries to hide his embarrassment. After a moment's silence he looked up again. "I could show you how to dance," he offered.

Sakura stared. "You know how to dance?" she asked in surprised. Gaara nodded. "Where did you learn?"

"Temari taught me because she wanted a partner. She likes to dance," Gaara explained.

"Would you really teach me?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure, why not?"

"Oh! Thanks Gaara!" she squealed.

* * *

"I've called you here on very important business," Tsunade said, her hands folded under her chin. 

"Are you sending us away?"

"No. Never," she replied. "It a mission."

"But we aren't lisenced to go on missions from Konoha."

"I know, but this is urgent and I need you two to go."

"When?"

"Right now."

* * *

Sakura had found an empty building with lots of space enough to dance in. Gaara brought a CD in and he showed her how to dance to each song. After he got tired of almost getting trampled and elbowed several times he made a Suna Bushin for Sakura to dance with. He sat with the stereo and watched correcting her several times. Easily growing bored with watching her, he began unconciously scanning the CD looking for a song he liked. 

Ten songs that only lasted 10 seconds later..

Sakura smacked her hands in front of his face. "Gaara! Stop!

"Gomen," he mumbled. He stopped scanning and let the stereo play 'Drowned' by Korn. Sakura glared at him as he laid on his back for not picking a good song she could dance to. She started to turn, but stopped as the lyrics began. Fully turning back to him she stared at the sand nin who lay with his eyes closed, singing along the music. He continued, not paying any attention to her, until she sat on his stomach, making him grunt out the last word in the verse.

"What?"

"Any other hidden talents you'd like to share?" she asked.

"….uh..I can cook…" he replied, not catching her sarcasm.

"Really? That's it?" she asked. "You don't have any other talents that would have previously been labeled 'non-Gaara'?"

Gaara grinned. "Not that I know of."

Sakura laughed and helped him up. "Hey! I have a good idea!"

"What?" Gaara asked taking a drink from his soda.

"Ask Neji out and we'll go on a double date!"

Gaara choked on his soda.

Sakura laughed at his expression while he recovered himself. They left the old building and walked to Sakura's house.

"I don't think so…." Gaara replied.

"Aw! Why?" she whined.

"Well…cause I just spent the night….It seems weird to do some thing again so soon…"

"Okay," she said sticking her tongue out at him.

Gaara did the same then waved her into her house then started to walk home himself, ready for dinner.

**Where are they going?**

"Who?" Gaara asked, immediately glancing around.

**Temari and Kankurou. They're heading towards the gate.**

Gaara stared in the direction of the gate in confusion the started heading towards the gate.

**Wait… Gaara, wait!**

Gaara didn't listen and ran to the gate as fast as he could.

* * *

Kankurou and Temari exited the Konoha village and was about to leap into the woods when they felt a familiar chakra coming up fast. They tried to ignore it and move faster but their brother was faster. 

"Temari! Kankurou!" Gaara called jumping up to them. They stopped but didn't turn to him as he slowly approached them. "Where are you going?" he asked curiously.

"No where," Kankurou replied sternly. "You can't come."

Gaara stopped short at his tone. "Why not?"

"You're not ready," Kankurou didn't turn to look at him but kept the same tone.

"Why? Where are you going?"

"We're going to get rid of the sound nins that are around the border."

Gaara blinked. "Why can't I come? I've been working hard for this. I can help."

"No, Gaara," Temari mumbled, also unwilling to look at him.

"Why?" Gaara frowned in frustration. "I can—"

"No Gaara! You'll only get in our way! Like you always do!"

Gaara froze, wide-eyed, unable to take in what he had said. He gave a small, worried smile. "What are you talking about—?"

Kankurou turned and glared at him. "You heard me! You're always in the way with everything we want to do! Everything bad that's ever happened to us two is because of you! We have a job to do and we aren't taking you to mess us up!" Muttering to Temari to come on, Kankurou leapt into the trees with Temari right behind him.

Gaara stared at the place his siblings had bee, a feeling rising up in his chest that made it hurt. Unable to control it he turned and ran back to his house, flying into a rage as he entered his room. When he had run out of steam from smashing his possessions, he plopped down in the middle of the room and, for the first time in a long time, felt like crying. Not only had he destroyed almost all his worldly possessions, but Kankurou….

He got up and ran to Neji's house. On the way, going over what happened, he worked himself up to sniffles.

"Gaara, what's wrong?" Neji asked in alarm when the sand nin opened his door.

Gaara cracked and started crying on a very startled Neji's shoulder. Sakura had done this to him before when Sasuke had been particularly nasty to her. It seemed to make her feel better and he hoped it would work for him.


	17. Someone Precious to You

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 17: Someone Precious to you

* * *

Neji looked down at the sand-nin leaning on his shoulder. He had exhausted himself from his crying fit. Neji continued to rub his back, calming him down. He was angry at Kankurou for treating Gaara like this, but then he began to think it over and realized some things.

"You know what?" Neji asked, brushing the red hair from his dark rimmed eyes.

"Hm…?" Gaara sniffed.

"I don't think Kankurou meant those things he said."

Gaara tensed up angrily. "What? Then why did he say them?"

"Hear me out, ok?" Neji ordered patiently. "Sometimes, when people are worried or scared, they say things that they really don't mean. They say them to protect, even though they hurt. Kankurou didn't mean what he said. He just wanted to protect you from getting hurt."

"How do you know?" Gaara demanded.

"That day Ghostfist came and attacked you, Kankurou told me how upset he was about it," Neji smiled and leaned his head onto Gaara's. "Despite what he said and what you think, he loves you. So does Temari. You're their brother and they love you more then anything. Tsunade-sama sent them out to attack the sound nins that have been sighted in the fire country. Everyone is worried that Ghostfist is among them and they don't want you to get hurt."

"…..why?..." Gaara asked.

"Cause there are people who care about you a lot," Neji replied.

"Like who?"

Neji held up his hand in front of Gaara's face so he could see. "Me, Kankurou, Temari, Tsunade-sama, Sakura, Naruto, Hinata-sama and Shikamaru."

"Hachi…" Gaara murmured. He whipped his eyes and relaxed again. "….'protecting someone precious to you'…."

"What about you?" Neji asked.

Gaara held up his hand too. "Temari, Kankurou, you, Naruto, Sakura and…obaachan." he frowned at the small number, then smiled at how much he had.

Neji nodded against his head. "And you should protect them, shouldn't you?"

"Cause their precious," Gaara said, feeling a lot better.

"Mm-hm."

* * *

Gaara took a dead breath of the cool night air. He felt a whole lot better now. Amazingly better. He didn't like being left behind, but he didn't feel bad about it anymore. He thought about Temari and Kankurou and wondered what they were doing. _'Probably fighting the sound nins by now…'_ He frowned when he thought of the sound nins. That Ghostfist…

Gaara's eyes widened and he gasped when he suddenly remembered something.

**Flashback**

"_Ghostfist might be among them."_

**End Flashback**

**Flashback**

"_You be careful, little sand. Be good or people around you might start to…disappear…" Ghostfist said before Gaara blackout._

**End Flashback**

Gaara froze in panic then jumped up onto the houses to hurriedly get to his house. When he got there he grabbed his ninja bag and ran out of the village following his siblings trail.

* * *

"What do you mean Gaara's gone!" Tsunade shouted, slamming her fists down on her desk.

Neji and Sakura tried not to look as scared as they felt. "He was at my house because he was upset about Temari and Kankurou then he went home," Neji said.

"I went over to hang out with him and he wasn't there," Sakura added. "So I went over Neji's and he said he had gone home ten minutes ago."

Tsunade sighed and sat back in her chair.

"Tsunade-sama, I think he went after Temari and Kankurou," Neji ventured.

"Obviously!" Tsunade snapped.

"Hokage-sama, you should send someone after him to bring him back," said (….(thinks really hard)….) Chunnin #2. (:P gomen)

Neji and Sakura stood straighter and started to say something, but Tsunade cut them off with a glare. "Neji, you can't go. Konoha needs as many people protecting it as possible. And your duty is protecting the Main Family. Orochimaru will want the Byakugan as well as other blood limits. Hinata and Hanabi mustn't be taken. Neither should you," she added to his glare. "Sakura I need you to stay here and see to the patience in the hospital."

"But—" Sakura started then stopped.

"Who will go after them!" Neji demanded.

"I will go myself. I'll take Inuzuma Tsume with me to track them," Tsunade told him as she stood then led the Hyuga outside. She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "Don't worry," she assured him. "I'll bring them back alive." Neji smiled back and darted off back to the Hyuga estate. Tsunade's smile faded. "…I hope."

* * *

Ghostfist smiled wickedly, sensing a familiar chakra rapidly approaching. He clicked his teeth. "Tsk tsk. What a bad boy…"

Gaara jumped down into a large clearing. He surveyed the scene before him with wide eyes and an open mouth. Ghostfist was standing in the center facing him, between him and when Gaara was standing, Kankurou lay unmoving in a pool of his own blood. His eyes were closed, but his face was wrung with pain. Gaara froze unable to move.

He snapped out of his daze at Ghostfist's laughter.

"You should've listened to me," he said. He reached down and lifted Temari, who was the same as Kankurou, up into his arms and rubbed her face. "Such a pretty face, your sister has. What a waste."

"Don't touch her!" Gaara shouted, rushing at him.

"Fine." He tossed Temari towards Kankurou.

Gaara jumped to catch her and laid her next to Kankurou. She was cold to the touch and it scared him. He set her down, unable to take his eyes off her still face. Ghostfist came up to him and knelt next to the sand nin.

"Ain't it a shame?"

Gaara cracked and swung his arm to stab him with the kunai he'd whipped out. Ghostfist leapt away, but Gaara followed him, throwing the kunai ahead. Ghostfist's finger slipped into the ring and threw it back. But this was one of Tsunade's favorite tricks and Gaara was ready to dodge. He made a sign and the sound nin was flung into a tree by the sand. He made three quick signs and took a deep breath.

"**Fuuton: mugen sajin daitoppa!**" Gaara released a massive storm of sand and wind at Ghostfist. He watched the smoke clear, waiting.

**He's coming.**

Ghostfist seemed to rip himself from the smoke, charging at Gaara. He made several quick hand signs.

**That's the technique.** Shukaku warned again.

Gaara dropped down into the stance Kankurou had taught him and also darted forward, ahead of the sand, meeting him half way. The sound nin was in shock as the sand nin fought even with him, punch for punch, barely leaving any openings. Frustrated, he pushed past Gaara's defense and placed his palm on his chest, knocking him twenty feet back. Gaara coughed and clutched where he had been struck.

"Hm! I'll admit I'm amazed at how much you've improved in such a short amount of time," he said with distain. "But you are far from my equal. The blow I landed is supposedly similar to the Hyuga's gentle fist. I've attacked your insides with sound." he grinned evilly. "Hurt's doesn't it?"

Gaara grimaced. He wasn't going to lie; it hurt like hell, but not enough that he couldn't move. He stood, panting for breath, staring down his opponent. _'Any bright ideas?'_

**You can do the same to him.** Shukaku voiced.** The inhuman strength the Hokage taught you should be enough to cause some major damage.**

'_I don't want to rely on strength alone. I learn jutsus too.'_

**…** Shukaku was silent for a minute. **I have one suggestion, but you might not like it.**

"Are you two done talking yet?" Ghostfist sneered. "You and your pathetic demon prepare your selves." Without waiting for an answer, he darted forward pulling a katana from its sheath on his back.

He swung down at the still sand nin, but gasped as he blocked the blade with his own arm. Drops of blood fell to the ground as Gaara raised his head to give him an icy glare.

"You shouldn't insult him. He gets angry," Gaara said. He twisted his arm around and grabbed Ghostfist's wrist and pulled him off balance. His fist connected with his face with a bone crushing force that sent the sound nin sailing to the other end of the clearing.

**Don't listen to anything he says.**

'_He hasn't said anything.'_

**He will. He'll try to catch you off guard when he realizes he can't beat you. He lied to your face when he said you weren't fighting on equal level.**

Gaara frowned and released the Kyokubun'ya. He watched Ghostfist get up and watched as waves of chakra left his body. He frowned. _'Is that a curse seal?'_

**No. It's just chakra. He's preparing to attack.**

Ghostfist looked up and saw the Kyokubun'ya. He grinned then disappeared.

Gaara paused then caught sight of moving chakra and looked up. Ghostfist sent thousands of kunai filled with his technique's chakra down at him. Gaara grinned as well and reached out with both hands. He spread his territory out to a diameter of thirty feet and grabbed several strands of wind that passed through. When he had a firm grasp he spun as fast as he could, twisting the strands of wind around him knocking the kunais away.

Ghostfist sneered. "You're Hyuga friend's taught you a lot haven't they?"

Gaara blinked in surprise. "Whoa it worked!"

Ghostfist: (crash)

Shukaku: **(Crash)**

**You baka! You didn't know it would work!** Shukaku screeched.

"It just came to me, so I thought I'd try it…" Gaara replied aloud.

Ghostfist stared then snicker. "And here I thought you were exceptionally talented. You're just lucky."

Gaara just smirked and put up the barrier again, preparing for the next attack.

"Too bad your brother wasn't as lucky. It might have saved him…or you could have been a little..faster."

Gaara stopped short, forgetting Shukaku's warning, and his defense dropped for a moment.

Ghostfist grinned and made several more signs. "**Zankuuha!**"

An enormous amount of air pressure hit Gaara, knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying again. He squeezed his eyes opened to look at Ghostfist, but all he saw with the bloodlimit was a mount of chakra. _'It's a clone!'_

His flying came to a sudden stop as he ran into something and the something went straight through his side. Grimising and coughing blood he looked down and saw a long blade. The bushin puffed away and ghostfist snickered behind him.

"See?" he said right before he twisted his blade around and sliced out of Gaara. Gaara cried out in pain, then Ghostfist landed a kick on his back knocking him into the dirt.

Gaara groaned and tried to move. A wave or pain shot though his body from his side and he gave up on that idea.

**I told you not to listen.** Shukaku said without pity. **_'Damn….we're really in a tight spot now…'_**

Ghostfist started walking towards Gaara examining his katana which was dripping with blood. Gaara saw him with the kyokubun'ya he'd left open. He took a deep breath and focused on the wind around him and sent his chakra underneath his body. The sound nin leapt forward ready to finish him off. His blade came down hard causing the ground to break.

Ghostfist gasped and stared. Gaara had disappeared. He looked around for the sand nin, knowing he couldn't have gotten that far with that wound.

"See? I told you this was a good specialty that could come in handy," Gaara said talking aloud to Shukaku.

**Oh shut up.**

Ghostfist looked up and saw Gaara sitting cross-legged in midair. There was no sand underneath him holding him up either. Glaring in frustration, Ghostfist threw a kunai and shuriken at him, forgetting to send his chakra into it, allowing the sand to catch it.

"You can fly now!"

"So?" Gaara replied. Ignoring him, he reached down and touched his side, flinching. He forgot the pain for a moment when he realized he had a hole in his body. _His_ body. This was worse then the Chidori. He looked down when Ghostfist laughed.

"What will you do now? Just hang there until you bleed to death or I leave?" he asked. "I have orders to kill you, I'm not going anywhere."

"No, I'm coming down," Gaara lowered himself to the ground and stood, breathing heavily. "And you played into my hands."

This time Ghostfist really laughed. "You can't be serious! You can barely stand! How do you expect to pose any threat to me now!"

Gaara just grinned and made the hand seals Tsunade had shown him. He glared at Ghostfist and crouched down to a fighting stance. "You will die for killing Temari and Kankurou." He reached up and pulled his hat off, revealing his tattoo 'ai'. It was no longer red like it use to be but black. "**Nimpo: Souzousaisei!**"

Ghostfist stared as seals, not unlike the curse seals of Orochimaru, crept across his face from the kanji. There was a small hissing sound and smoke came from all of Gaara's wounds. Before his eyes all the wounds and cuts healed themselves and closed up.

"This is Tsunade-obaachan secret technique. Chakra is gathered over a period of time and stored. It is able to be released at will and used to heal. It also gives me an enormous boost of power," Gaara explained. He frowned to himself. _'But I have to hurry. The effect isn't perminate like Obaachan's yet…the wounds will return in a moment…'_

Gaara grinned wickedly at him and held up his bandaged right hand. With his left, he ripped them off and wiped some blood from his side wound with his thumb and ran it down his arm. Dark blue seals and veins slowly appeared and Ghostfist's senses were filled with an incredible chakra. The chakra surrounding it wasn't Gaara's. It was black and smoke like. The smoke took form and something stared out of it.

"Meet my demon," Gaara said. Pulling his hand back, he charged at Ghostfist. His fist connected with his chest and the Shukaku's chakra smashed though him. Gaara stood still, panting, as the smoky chakra dissolved. He winced and groaned as the effect wore off and his wounds reopened. His vision began to blur and he coughed up more blood.

The kyokubun'ya disappeared and the blue seals on his arm faded to black. Turning from the sound nin on the ground, he saw his brother and sister lying together where he left them. With his heart stinging painfully, he staggered over to them. His face felt wet, from blood or tears he couldn't tell and didn't care. He laid down next to Kankurou and used his chest like a pillow and reached over to touch Temari's arm. He felt very comfortable, despite the wound in his side.

As he rested, he went over all the things they'd done together.

**Flashback**

"_Why wont you listen to your older brother for once?" Kankurou demanded, grabbed his shirt._

"_Gaara, please?" Temari begged._

_

* * *

_

"_My existence will not be erased! I wont let it!"_

"_Don't come any closer!"_

"_The pain of being alone…It's not an easy one to bare…Why is it…that I can understand your pain?"_

"_They saved me from the pain of being alone. They acknowledged my existence…That's why they are important to me."_

"…_Love…"_

_

* * *

_

"_Temari…Kankurou…I'm sorry."_

"_It's ok."_

_

* * *

_

_"My eyes hurt" he mumbled rubbing his eyes._

_"I'm sorry we couldn't stop them" she said._

_

* * *

_

_Tsunade set the cup and spoon on his stomach. "It tastes good and it's cold." Gaara picked it up and tasted it. He paused to savor the sweet cold taste then ate the rest. "Sorry I was harsh." she said sitting next to him. _

_

* * *

_

_"Put me down"_

_"No."_

_"Put me down now!"_

_"Or you'll do what" Kankurou asked walking up the stairs._

_"I'll squish you"_

_"Just try" Kankurou replied feeling very bold. No answer. "Well"_

_"I'll do it later" came the mumbled answer._

_

* * *

_

_Kankurou decided to join Gaara and the two brothers ran around the clearing, and even extended it more then Tsunade had meant for Gaara, as they began competing for things like who could go the longest, and who was in front. This took both their minds off the amount they had actually run so they ended up going almost double the amount before Tsunade stopped them._

_

* * *

_

_The puppet-user looked the sand-user up and down. "You look cool" Kankurou told him._

_

* * *

_

_"I've decided to take you with me as my student and assistant" she told him._

_Gaara's face visibly lit up. "Really" he cried before he caught himself._

_"Yep" Tsunade said holding back a laugh. "I'll train you more on the way" she stood and walk passed him. "You didn't think I'd leave you behind, did you? What kind of friend do you think I am" she shut the door behind her._

_

* * *

_

_"GAARA" Gaara looked up in time to see a purple blur run up to him and wrap it's arms around him in a hug. Over the purple blur's shoulder he saw an orange blur coming at him as well. "We missed you so much"_

_

* * *

_

He likes you didn't you know

_"Huh"_

He s in love with you

_

* * *

_

_"You can love many people at once" Temari continued. "Not just one. For instance, I love Shikamaru very much, but I also love Kankurou..and you, Gaara. I may be nasty to you guys sometimes, but that doesn't mean I don't love you. You are my only brothers and I'd do anything for you." she smiled at both of them as they had a moment of silence._

_"Kankurou, Temari"_

_"Yeah"_

_"...I love you, too." _

_

* * *

__"I'm sorry about earlier" Gaara mumbled._

_Neji smiled. "Me too. I shouldn't have gotten so mad."_

_

* * *

_

_Temari and Kankurou followed him shortly and the three climbed into the futons. During these rare happenings, Kankurou was usually in the middle, but this time Gaara got pushed into the middle and the two others 'snuggled' up to him for 'warmth'. All three sighed in unison, then began to drift off into slumber._

_

* * *

_

_"I don't think I want to do this..." Gaara said holding onto the wall of the rink like it was the thing that was between him and certain death. _

_"It's easy, once you get the hang of it" Neji assured him skating around him._

_

* * *

_

"_You know...I don't really mind going shopping," Gaara mumbled to Sakura. "Actually I like shopping. But I do. Not. Like. Carrying. Other. Peoples. BAGS!" _

_Sakura giggled and turned to him. "But don't you want to be the gentleman?"_

_

* * *

_

_Gaara jumped up and ran into his room and shut the door. He dove headfirst onto the bed and under the covers. He knew he was acting spastic, but didn't really care at the moment._

'_I'm asleep! I'm asleep! I'm asleep!' Gaara told himself over and over._

_

* * *

_

'_Dear Gaara,_

_We really hope that maybe you can find your reason to exist here in our village. We want you to know that we love you very much and you are always welcome with us. We hope you and Temari and Kankurou have a very happy first Christmas together._

_Love,_

_Naruto 'tebaiyo, Sakura (flower drawing), Kakashi, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Asuma, Shino, Hinata (little smiley face), Kiba (underline underline), (a paw print), Kurenai, Lee (little face with ping teeth), Tenten, Gai ("Power of youth!"), Jiraiya (Ero-rennin was written with Naruto's handwriting), Neji (Naruto's handwriting again: 'I love you!'), Tsunade-obaachan (We love you!)_

_

* * *

_

_Temari looked up at Gaara, lower lip trembling, and Gaara thought he did something wrong until she burst into tears and glomped him. Repeatedly, squealing her thanks._

_

* * *

_

"_You see, against me, your sand is useless and you are helpless."_

_

* * *

_

"_Why do you… like me?" he asked, not looking at Neji, but instead, at Neji's hands, which were in Neji's lap._

_Neji was awake now. "What?"_

"_Why do you like me?" Gaara repeated, still not looking at him._

_Neji frowned. "What kind of question is that?"_

"_Well… I was curious…"_

_Neji's frown of slight anger turned to a thoughtful one as he scratched his chin, looking out the window, deep in thought. "I guess…"_

_Gaara looked up._

"_I guess, at first, I admired your strength, because you were able to beat Lee, my teammate, in the Chuunin exam," Neji began. "When I heard you and your brother and sister helped rescue our squad from the Sound Nins, I thought, 'well, no wonder we got out of it alive'…"_

_Gaara looked at his own hands, slightly embarrassed but at the same time a little sad that Neji only liked him for his strength, supposedly._

"…_But then, after Kankurou and I started training together, and I saw more and more of you," Neji continued, not seeing Gaara's look, "I started looking at you as a person, and not just another ninja. And I started seeing your qualities, too."_

"_Quality?" Gaara repeated._

_**What are we, eggs?  
**  
"Yeah. You know, your sense of humor (**You have a sense of humor?** Shut up!), your care towards your siblings, things like that. I admired these qualities, too, but at the same time, I admired the person who had them, for just being who he was." Neji suddenly blushed slightly. "Then, I started to actually look at you… and I started liking… the way you look…"_

_Gaara looked up again, confused. "The way I look?"_

_Neji nodded, turning to give him a small smile. "You have pretty eyes."_

_Gaara blinked. I do?_

_**You do?  
**  
Neji smiled, reading the look. "You do." He yawned again and scooted over. "Come on," he said, patting the bed next to him. "You don't have to sleep."_

_Gaara climbed meekly up on the futon and laid down, propping his head up with the pillows Neji put there for him. After Gaara was situated, Neji laid his head on Gaara's stomach as a pillow and fell back to sleep._

_

* * *

_

"_You heard me! You're always in the way with everything we want to do! Everything bad that's ever happened to us two is because of you! We have a job to do and we aren't taking you to mess us up!"_

_

* * *

_

"_Gaara, what's wrong?"_

"_I don't think Kankurou meant those things he said."_

**End Flashback (s)**

* * *

(H-R: oh my god I hate flashbacks….)

(Shukaku: **You pulled and SNG**)

(H-R: …and it was so hard…and frustrating…)

* * *

Gaara closed his eyes. He felt very tired; missing Temari and Kankurou was a new feeling. He understood why Neji was upset with his father's death. He never wanted to see anyone's smiling face so much before. Gaara closed his eyes and smiled, knowing he'd see them soon. 


	18. Life Continues at a Story's End

**Suna's Kekkei Genkai**

Chapter 18: Life Continues at a Story's End

This fic is a prequel for Past Meets Future for those of u I havent told yet. Unfortunately I wrote this after PMF and so the whole GaarNeji wasn't in it but I know how Gaara's becoming more and more ooc and if u read PMF he's REALLY out of character. It's because Sakurais helping him become a normal happy boy. and they are successful. So the Gaara in this is pre-Gaara-mirai :)

* * *

Neji stared out the window towards the main gate, and then back at Naruto, who was sitting with Hinata, playing some game with her and Hanabi. Naruto looked up at him, trying to give a reassuring smile, but it came out as worried one. Hinata refused to look at either of them and watched Hanabi make her move. They had been silent since they began playing, all worried for their friends from Sand. Hanabi hadn't been informed about the happenings, so she continued playing as if nothing happened.

Hiashi knocked then opened the door with a solemn expression. Hanabi ran up to him smiling.

"Tousan! I beat Naruto and Hinata-niichan!" she told him.

"Very good, Hanabi," he said smiling slightly down at her. "May I speak to them alone for a moment?"

"Hai!" Hanabi made a little bow then went out of the room and ran down the hall.

All three pairs of eyes were on Hiashi, desperate for some good news. Silence fell on them as Hiashi thought of the words he should use.

"Is Tsunade-sama back?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Yes, Hinata, she has returned," Hiashi said he paused for breath for a second, but Naruto interrupted him.

"Did she bring the sand nins back! Are they alright!" Naruto cried.

"Where are they!" Neji demanded.

"Will you let me finish?" Hiashi roared causing them to clamp their mouths shut. "Tsunade-sama has returned and she brought back all three sand nins…."

"How are they? Are they alright?" Neji asked quietly.

"No, they aren't, but—"

Naruto and Neji didn't wait for the 'but'. They ran passed him and out the door towards who knows where since Hiashi didn't tell them where the sand nins were. Hiashi blinked when he suddenly saw just his daughter standing before him. She gave him a tiny smile.

"But?" she asked.

He smiled down at her. "But Tsunade-sama is taking care of them."

* * *

…_What happened…?_

…_Where am I…?_

…_Did I die…?_

…_I can't move…_

…_I hurt everywhere…_

…_Where's Temari…?_

* * *

Kankurou cracked his eyes opened and saw a white ceiling. One he'd never seen before. But come to think of it, how many white ceilings could a fifteen year old see in one life? And how could one tell them apart? He didn't know. He was too tired to think about it. Since his eyes weren't helping with anything, he closed them and began using his other senses.

Touch? He was laying one a _really_ comfortable bed that had warm sheets.

Smell? He smelled a lot of herbs like the ones Gaara use to bring home with instructions on how to prepare them from the Hokage.

Taste? He couldn't taste anything at all. He was hungry too. So hungry he'd eat Temari's cooking.

Hear? There was a beeping noise to his right and the sound of light breathing to his left. Someone on his right was working on something. Working and humming that tune from the music box Gaara got for Christmas…god that feels like such a long time ago.

"Oh, good, you're awake."

Kankurou opened his eyes again and saw the first thing he saw was big boobs.

"Whoa.."

SMACK!

"Ow!"

"I'm glad you feel better," Tsunade growled.

"Sorry," Kankurou said. "Where am I?"

"You're in a room that branches of my office," Tsunade replied. "How do you feel?"

"I hurt everywhere," he groaned. He suddenly remembered something and sat up quickly. "Where's Temari?" He looked to his left and saw her sleeping soundly on the bed next to him. Heaving a sigh of relief, he sat back again. "Does Gaara know we're back?" He looked over at Tsunade in question when she didn't answer at once and noticed the other bed. "Oh God!" he leapt up and tried to rush over to the bed.

Tsunade gently pushed him back on the bed. "It's ok," she said.

"What happened!" Kankurou demanded. He frantically stared over her shoulder at his still brother on the bed. "He was suppose to stay here! Why is he hurt?"

"He followed you," Tsunade explained. "Neji told me about it."

"Why didn't he stop him?" Kankurou said, quite near hysteria.

"Kankurou, calm down! Neji didn't know he left until later. He's ok though."

"He doesn't look ok…"

"I know he doesn't. And I suppose he isn't 'ok'. He'll live though, I've made sure of that," Tsunade said in a voice so sure of herself that Kankurou calmed down a bit.

"What happened?"

"He fought Ghostfist after he caught up with you. You two were already unconscious when Gaara arrived. He thought you were dead and flew into a rage. He was angry and upset that you were gone. When I found him, he was unconscious from his wounds and lack of blood, but he had crept over to you two and lain down with you, waiting to die with you."

Kankurou looked over at his little brother, close to tears and slowly got up and limped over to the bed. This time Tsunade let him. He reached out and brushed Gaara's hair off his head. "How'd you find out?" he asked the Hokage.

"Ghostfist wasn't quite dead when I got there," Tsunade explained. "And I spoke with Shukaku."

"You _spoke_ with _Shukaku_?" Kankurou said in shock.

"Yes," she replied as if this was normal. "A very good source of information."

Shukaku**: _What am I? A guide book?_**

"…So Gaara's ok now?"

"Yes he'll be fine."

"How's Temari?"

"She's already been awake. She's just sleeping."

"How's she doing?" Kankurou asked.

"She's doing fine. She was a little upset when she woke up though," Tsunade said, looking upset herself. "I have to remember not to use seals around you three anymore."

Kankurou gave her a look. "You used seals in front of Temari?"

"Why doesn't she like them?" Tsunade asked.

"You remember when we first came here? How the sand nins brought us?"

"Yeah, you had seal on you to keep the Kekkei Genkai at bay."

"Well, they made Temari watch as they put them on Gaara, and then on me. It just really scared her and now she can't look at seals or sealing elements with out freaking out," Kankurou explained.

"I see," Tsunade said. She smiled then. "Honestly I understand her feelings."

"When will she wake up?"

"(Yawn) I'm awake," Temari yawned from across the room. She slowly stretched then sat up. She gave her relieved brother a wave then got up herself and came over to sit on Gaara's bed as well. Kankurou surprised her but hugging her tight or as tight as his aching body allowed him. She smiled and hugged back. When they were done, Temari climbed to Gaara's other side and laid down next to him. "When will Gaara wake up?"

"I don't know," Tsunade answered. "It could be a while. Shukaku told me that Gaara wasn't even answering him when he called and his mind is unsteady."

"What does that mean?" Kankurou asked worried.

"He's basically slipped into the darkest part of his mind where Shukaku can't find him, but can sense him," Tsunade suddenly glared down at the redhead. "I, myself, am very anxious for him to wake up so I can yell at him. The baka."

There were several footfalls outside and argument reached their ears.

"Let me in!"

"No they're sleeping! You can't go in yet!"

"Let us talk to obaachan, tte bayou!"

"Shut up Naruto!"

(POW)

(silence)

"Please Sakura?"

Tsunade smiled. "Sakura! Let Neji in."

The door opened and Sakura stepped in with Neji behind her. The Hyuga was out of breath from his search and looked very distraught. He swallowed hard as he entered the room. The sight of the two sand nins up and about seemed to help a bit.

"Hey guys," was all he could say.

"Hi Neji," Temari replied sitting up.

"Are you guys ok?" he asked.

They could all tell he was fighting the temptation to run over to Gaara and freak out. He composed himself though and didn't move from the door (the great Hyuga Neji does NOT run frantically into a room like a crazed fan girl-SNG).

"Yeah we're fine," they replied.

"Um…is…Gaara…"

"He'll be fine too," Tsunade assured him.

Relief was evident on his face. "Really?" he asked.

Tsunade nodded as she placed a hand on his head. Temari and Kankurou looked down at their bruised and bandaged brother. Temari laid down and gently wrapped her arms around him. Kankurou laid down and did the same. He felt really girly but didn't really care. He was tired.

Tsunade and Sakura smiled at the pretty picture they painted, sleeping together. Neji sat down, trying to calm himself down from his previous worry.

'_Sleep well, oshii chan…'_ Tsunade smiled down at the boy that had come so far since she first met him.

* * *

Gaara remained in a coma for nearly a week and a half. Tsunade kept him in the same room so she could take care of him as much as possible. Temari and Kankurou refused to leave his side the entire time. Neji and Sakura visited every day and stayed until Tsunade kicked them out at night. While they waited both Kankurou and Temari healed and regained their strength.

They looked up when Sakura came in one afternoon. Neji had been forced to go on his team's mission and wasn't able to come. She smiled in greeting to them.

"Why don't you two take a break and go out for a while?" she suggested. "I'll stay with Gaara." Both shook their heads. "Honestly, you two haven't left this room since you got back. It's not like he's going anywhere. He'll be ok, I promise."

Temari and Kankurou looked at each other.

"I suppose we could go out for a few… minutes…" Temari started. "I do need a shower…"

Kankurou looked thoughtfully upset then turned and glared at her. "If he wakes up, tell us_ immediately_!"

"I promise," she said.

As the two siblings grudgingly left, Sakura pulled a chair up to Gaara's bed and looked down at him. He was simply sleeping now, not longer in a coma, but his face was twisted from the torture of a nightmare. Perspiration dotted his forehead, causing his hair cling to it. She got up and took a cloth from the cabinet and wet it in the sink. As she washed his face of, she saw his Kekkei Genkai opening and closing from his fear of the dream. Her hand slipped from the cloth; her bare skin touched his eye lid and she felt a rush of chakra go through her, knocking her breath away and making it hard to breathe. Then it stopped as she heard a dark voice gently coaxing Gaara to pull it back. Then she felt something dark turn to her.

**Who are _you_?**

"Ha-Haruno Sakura…..Shukaku…sama?" she replied with a guess.

**Heh…I am. You're the little one's friend.**

"I am…Is he ok?" she asked. _' 'Little one's'?'_

**He's about to wake up, **was the last thing she heard.

Sakura pulled her hand back as Gaara groaned and opened his eyes to a squint.

"Where am I?" he asked hoarsely.

"In Konoha," she replied, moving into his view. "Are you ok?"

Gaara looked very upset at this news. "Why didn't you leave me?"

"Cause! Why would we leave you to die!" she asked.

"I wanted to."

"Why?" she asked going to the window and sending one of those spiffy messenger birds to Temari and Kankurou.

Gaara didn't answer for a while and when he did it was barely audible. "I wanted to be with… Kankurou and Temari…"

Sakura didn't want the laugh bubbling up to come out, but it did. It came out in a fit of giggles. She hastily, and unsuccessfully, tried to stifle them as Gaara turned to her looking heartbroken, not understanding why his best friend was laughing at him.

"Why are you laughing at me, Sakura?" he cried.

She leaned down and gave him a gentle hug. He tried to push her away, still upset, but couldn't. "I'm sorry Gaara," she said. "I have a surprise for you."

"I don't want it," he said, looking away. Upset with life.

"What?" Sakura cried. "You love surprises!"

"Not anymore."

"Oh I think you'll like this one," she assured him.

She turned to the door as frantic footsteps rushed to it. The door burst open and two very out of breath and worried sand nins ran in. Gaara's eyes widened and if he could he would've sat up or jumped up, but he couldn't do either so he simply lay frozen on his bed.

"Oh, Gaara!" Temari rushed over and threw her arms around his neck. Both of their hair was still wet and a little soapy since they had both rushed over as soon as that annoying bird zoomed into Kankurou's bathroom (what'd you expect them to do?). She burst into tears on his shoulder. "You stupid, stupid boy!" she sobbed. "Why did you follow us? Why?"

Gaara didn't answer. There was a knot in his throat that forbid him to say a word. With his unbroken arm, he pulled her close and buried his face in her neck to hide the tears that were silently spilling down his cheeks. Kankurou moved to his other side. Reaching over, he brushed the tears from his brother's face.

* * *

Sakura smiled at them and stepped out to give them some time alone. She sat down on Tsunade's desk and thought for a bit. She should find Tsunade and tell her Gaara was awake._ 'Who else should I tell…?'_

DING

She smiled to herself, what a good friend she could be sometimes. She went back into the room when Gaara called her and asked her to do something for him. Which happened to be just what she had just thought of.

* * *

Sakura left and found Tsunade then she went to the field where Lee's team always trained after their missions. Gai was shouting encouragement to his sparring male subordinates. Tenten cheered too, but she mostly kept to her targets. Sakura watched them for a moment. Neji was distracted and was fighting no where near his best. Lee could see this and was going easy. Their ditzy teacher didn't seem to notice and had decided that they were being lazy.

Sakura made her presence known by calling out: "Hi Lee-san!" causing him to look in her direction while dodging Neji and run into a tree. She laughed behind her hand as she stepped forward.

"SAKURA! SO NICE TO SEE YOU ON THIS FINE AFTERNOON! HOW ARE YOU!" Gai screamed.

"I'm good thanks. I need to speak to Neji though," she said. "Just for a minute I promise!"

Neji stared wide eyed at her like a deer caught in headlights, then he slowly walked over to her like he was walking to his execution.

Sakura, being the evil devious child that only Gaara seems to know her for, saw this and couldn't resist. She forced herself to look drastically upset. As her face fell, Neji ran up to her and, grabbing her shoulders, shook her.

"How's Gaara! What's wrong!" Neji demanded. "Please…Sakura.."

"I have a message," she said. Sakura reached out and gave his strap things a yank like Gaara did to get his attention and make him nuts. " 'Come visit me soon.' " she said relaying her friend's message, then gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Neji looked clueless for a minute then broke into a smile. "He's ok?"

"Awake and complaining," she said. "He's with Temari and Kankurou."

"Can I…can I go see him?" Neji asked.

"He wants you to, but Neji? ….He just woke up ok?"

"Ok," Neji whispered quietly. "Thanks." He added before taking off.

* * *

When Tsunade came in to check on Gaara, Temari and Kankurou refused to leave again, but Tsunade was firm and sent them home. She smiled at Gaara when they were gone. "How do you feel?"

"Better..I guess,"

"Good," Tsunade said, then brought her hand down hard across his head.

"Ow! What was that for!" Gaara demanded clutching his head with his good hand. He gulped when Tsunade made a scary face and pushed it into his.

"Do. You. Realize. How…_pissed_ I am at you!"

(sweat) "……um……really pissed?"

"Sha!" Tsunade sat back and glared at him for a while. Gaara didn't move for fear of more thwacking and was looking at everything but her. She suddenly stood up and leaned towards him again. Gaara shrank as far as he couldn't into the pillow. "However…" Gaara squeezed his eyes shut. Tsunade smiled at him and kissed his forehead lightly. "..you did a good job."

Gaara opened one eye, then the other. "I did?" he asked.

"Yep!" (XD)

"You're not mad at me?"

"A little," Tsunade said. "But not really."

She sat him up and began to change his bandages. He watched her, never having this done to him before curiosity is understandable. To humor him she showed him the large cut on his side. For reasons unknown to her comprehension, he seemed very impressed with it and was upset when she said she was going to make it go away. His focus on the cut dissolved instantly when the clock in her office struck five and he realized he was starving.

"You eat too much, you know that?" Tsunade said frowning down at him.

"I haven't eaten in a _whole week and a half_!" Gaara said. "I'm gonna look skin and bones if I don't eat."

"Gaara you already look like skin and bones, no matter how much you eat," Tsunade said.

"……That's beside the point," Gaara said, glaring at her. "I'm hungry."

"I'll get you something later," Tsunade said, getting up and turning to put the bandages away. Gaara made several rude gestures behind her back and instantly stopped when she turned around again. Tsunade glanced at the door (Gaara made a face at her) and smiled. "You have a visitor."

(Face disappears) "Really?"

Tsunade went into a corner as a knock sounded at the door. Gaara looked at the door then at Tsunade who was to his surprise suddenly invisible (like, POOF, Hokage power!).

"Come in," Gaara said still looking for his teacher.

"Hey Gaara," Neji said opening the door.

Gaara abandoned finding his teacher, since Neji was there. "Hi!" he said smiling.

Neji smiled at his happiness to see him. He held up a box wrapped up in a cloth. "I brought you a snack."

"Food!" Gaara cried happily, as Neji came in and sat on the bed next to him.

"No, snacks," Neji said placing the box on Gaara's stomach. Neji propped Gaara up on a bunch of pillows so they could sit up together. Neji opened the box for Gaara (ever tried opening something with one hand? It's frustrating) and Gaara looked in.

"_Cookies!_" Gaara shoved some in his mouth, barely chewing, he was so hungry.

"Hey, you'll choke if you eat to fast!" Neji cried, taking the box away.

"Mm! mn-mn mns mm-mm-hm!" Gaara said through his face full of cookies. "Mnn!" he growled at him.

" 'Mnn!' to you to," Neji said laying against the pillows. He pulled out one cookie and handed it to Gaara, who swallowed then ate that one, slowing down on his consumption since Neji was only handing them to him one at a time. "How do you feel?"

"Better," Gaara said nibbling on some chocolate chips in the cookies. "My stomach feels so much better (T-T)."

"Try these," Neji said holding up one of the other things in the box.

"Whaf ish in?" Gaara asked with the cookie in his mouth.

"It's good," Neji said holding it out.

Gaara took it and looked at it before popping it into his mouth.

(pause)

Shukaku in tears: **Wow…..**

Gaara: (tears) "What is this?"

"Um…Chocolate covered caramel?" Neji said, blinking at Gaara's expression.

"I like it….a lot." (squeaky voice)

"Um, Gaara, are you ok?" Neji asked staring at him.

"I think I'm having food withdrawal…." Gaara said laying back against the pillow and leaning on Neji's shoulder.

(Inner Neji aka according to SNG Clarence: **you should have food withdrawal more often!**)

Neji blushed and put his arm around Gaara's shoulders. Gaara continued to munch on the cookies and candy staring at the wall with an absentminded expression.

Against the wall, using her super cool ninja techniques, Tsunade smiled at them. She wished she had a camera to capture the moment, but she knew there would be more moments; since life continues even after a story ends.

* * *

Suna's Kekkei Genkai ending theme: .HackSIGN-A Stray Child (Gaara's music box)

If you are lost in your way  
Deep in an awesome story  
Don't be in doubt and stray  
Cling to your lonesome folly

Now you're too close to the pain  
Let all the rain go further  
Come back and kiss me in vain  
Mother oh do not bother

Hear the chorus of pain  
Taking you back to proper ways  
It's so easy to find  
If you could remind me

Now you are lost in your way  
Deep in an awesome story  
So I will find you again  
Kiss you for lonesome folly

* * *

H-R now goes into a corner and sobs because she loves this fic and it is over 


End file.
